Open Gates
by Docnerd89
Summary: Of all the possible scenarios that her mind, and even Castle's more twisted mind, had come up with, this was far, far worse. COMPLETE.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Read it through before you judge me. Judge Kate all you want though.

**Disclaimer: **hahaha. No. ABC, Marlowe and team still own Castle and thank God for it. Best show runner ever!

She was shifting nervously outside the door, trying in vain to keep it together. Beckett doesn't do nervous. But –

But it's only been a week since she came back to work. She knew that it wouldn't be simple. She knew that resigning, and then coming back to the job that was her life would have its consequences. She came back to her job, back to her desk with her head held high. Even though she was under probation and would have to report each step before she actually took it; still, she was back. She'd started mending fences, started catching criminals and serving justice.

It was ironic really, that she had been unjust in so many of her actions. She could appreciate the irony even if she didn't like it. But now – now she was trying to fix what was broken, and for once, that wasn't just her. It was all the people that she cared about – all the people that she knew, beyond a doubt, cared about her. Loved her. And she loved them.

So she'd been back and trying, very subtly, to get Esposito and Ryan back on track. She knew that they had to do it themselves, of course. Though she might feel guilty about it, the issues between them were theirs to fix. But she could nudge them along. _Right?_ Sure. If Castle was here, he'd be trying to – although probably not as subtly.

Then there was that. Though neither was happy about it, she and Castle decided that they would wait for things to get settled before he attempted to worm his way back to the precinct. Gates might have let Beckett come back but none of them could judge how forgiving the woman was. They'd rather wait it out for a better chance than have him permanently banned right away.

Maybe that's what this was about. Or maybe Gates wanted to implement a new rule to make her life a little more miserable. Honestly, she should know this was hard enough. Cementing the cracks that they'd all inadvertently made in their team because of 'the case' was hard enough without more reprimanding. Still, she wasn't complaining. No. Beckett would face the consequences of her actions. It brought a small smile to her face when she realized, again, that she didn't have to face anything alone anymore.

She looked up to see Karpowski eyeing her strangely. _Oh, yeah._ Her hand had reached for the door handle but she was still just standing there. With a deep breath to calm her nerves, she turned the handle and stepped inside.

"You wanted to see me, sir?"

Gates looked up at her, took off her glasses and motioned for her to take a seat in front of her.

_So this is going to be a long one._ Somehow this felt very much like how Kate had imagined a visit to the principal's office to be. Which was weird considering that she'd never been to the principal's office. She always sweet-talked her way out of it before getting that far. _If only – _

"I wanted to talk about the arrangement with Mr. Castle."

_Oh?_ _Oh no._ She had hoped for more time. She had hoped that a few weeks worth of very, very hard work and a good amount of wrapped up cases would get her back into the good books before they tried to broach this topic. He wasn't even here to help.

Before she could get a word in, Gates continued. "Mr. Ryan told me about what happened between the two of you."

_What?_ She was going to kill Ryan. Wait. How did Ryan even know? Did he suspect …? But they'd been so careful. And even if he did, how could he tell Gates? She must have forced it out of him or something. No way would Ryan do that to her. Right?

She adjusted her features so that she wasn't looking at Gates with wide eyes. _Show no signs of fear._ Yeah. "Um. He did?"

"Yes. I was pretty surprised."

_Okay._

"In fact, I'm surprised that it hadn't happened earlier."

_Er… _

"Right since the time both of you came back last year you always seemed to be in sync with each other. Sometimes you would complete each other's sentences or thoughts before they even made it out to the rest of our ears."

_Umm…_

"Then again, maybe it was bound to happen. It happened with me and my partner too, back in the day."

_WHAT? Ew ew ew.. _She did not need to know anything about that. _Oh God. _Can she come right out and tell her that she doesn't need to know? Before she could, Gates went on.

"I assume that both of you are still talking about it. It can do a lot of damage, of course, but sometimes it can be extremely healing."

Kate pondered briefly if she was actually shrinking in size or just imagining it. "Right. Yeah." Really, what was she supposed to say? Of all the possible scenarios that her mind, and even Castle's more twisted mind, had come up with, this was far, far worse. And Gates was smirking. Smirking.

"I can't even imagine it. From what I know about you, detective, you've always had a tight control over your emotions. And though Mr. Castle doesn't seem like the most patient person, I do have to admit that he shows quite a good amount of restraint when he has to."

Kate gulped and nodded and hoped, very, very much that her blush wasn't showing. _Why is this happening?_

"I really can't imagine it. Was there yelling involved?"

Black spots. She was seeing black spots in front of her eyes. If she wasn't so stunned, she might have even thought about telling Gates that it's private, none of her business. But she pretty much couldn't coherently think at this point. "Yell- uh – some. Can't really control it sometimes."

"Hmm.", Gates said, nodding in understanding. "I always thought he'd have found you too intimidating to even raise his voice, let alone scream. He must be bolder than I gave credit for."

The room was spinning. The Earth's changed its axis. It's doomsday. She must be lying in a coma in some hospital bed. Maybe she did fall off that building after all. Because even getting together with Castle was more believable that sitting here, discussing her sex life with Captain Gates. Why? Good Lord, why was Gates thinking about how bold Rick is?

"Anyway, that is exactly why I want him back at the precinct. That is, if he still wants to shadow you."

_Good news, at last._ Why would Gates think he didn't want to shadow her anymore? Then again, does she still want him to come back? And how on Earth is she going to explain this to Castle? _Hey Castle, Gates wants you to come back to the precinct 'cause she's a dirty old voyeur?_ But, maybe they could face this together too. Having him by her side would be worth – ugh she doesn't even want to think about it. "I'm sure he'd be thrilled to come back."

"Good. Your team has had a high solve rate, so I suppose I can't make him out to be a distraction. And he has friends in higher places, so really if he wants back, I could hardly stop it anyway. Getting good publicity for the precinct does have its benefits I suppose.", Gates said in a tone that felt like the words were leaving her mouth rather reluctantly.

_Wow. Compliments? Well, kind of compliments. Really? _Maybe she really is still in bed. But she just pinched herself a few minutes ago. Felt real enough.

"That being said, detective, I need to know if you're okay with it. Will you still be able to work together like before?"

She didn't sit through any of this for nothing after all. She could get Castle back. No way was she throwing away this chance. So, they might have to ignore Gates staring, possibly. _Oh my – Did she used to stare at them through the shutters of her office window._ Kate fought of a mild way of nausea at the thought and hastened to answer.

"Yes, sir. I believe that it – everything we've been through – it can only have made us a better team.", she said with as much conviction as she could, possibly for convincing herself as much as Gates.

"Ah yes. I suppose that big explosion solved many issues."

_OH MY GOD! Oh God oh God oh God!_ "Uh. Yeah, I guess it did."

"Well then I'm glad it happened. I'll expect to see him tomorrow. Now get back to work, detective. The murders are not going to solve themselves."

"Yes sir." After an awkward shuffle to the door, once she was out, she practically ran towards her desk. She was still seeing spots in front of her eyes – or seeing nothing at all – either one, when she collided into Ryan. _Choke him or shoot him?_

"Are you alright, Beckett? You look kind of sick.", he said, with a worried expression.

"_Really_?", she said flatly, hoping that Ryan would read it as the sarcasm that it was. Unfortunately, he didn't.

"Yeah. You're all pale and shaking, and you look like you're going to pass out."

What did he expect? "What the hell did you tell Gates, Ryan?", she practically growled out.

"Huh?"

"Don't play dumb. She told me you told her what happened between Castle and I. How did you even know?"

"Well it was pretty obvious."

_It was – they were obvious? _Kate's hand unconsciously made its way to her neck as if to hide a hickey.

"It was obvious?", she asked, slightly less angry, and much more confused.

"Yeah. I mean, what else were Espo and I supposed to think when you told us that Castle was off the team?"

_Huh? _"Huh?", she said with her brows scrunched up in confusion.

" – and I'm sorry that I told the captain, Kate. I had to. She wasn't willing to give me a team that day unless I told her exactly what was going on."

"She – you. You're talking about that day on the roof?"

"Yeah." He drew out the word and looked even more concerned about her sanity than before.

She was sure she needed an aspirin – or few – or several. She was also sure that she was blushing furiously because Ryan clearly noticed.

"So she – she thought that Castle and I were fighting?" She was going to tell Castle. She was. But now -

"Were? So you guys are okay now?", Ryan asked happily and grinned fully when she nodded. "Is that why she wanted to speak to you?"

"Yeah. She wants Castle to continue shadowing me."

That alone was going to make Castle happy with giddiness. He did not need to know about the conversation. He did not. No. No one ever needed to know about that conversation. It scared her a little that her mind jumped to where it had been while she was in there. Actually, come to think of it; it was all his fault. He'd messed with her mind. She sees innuendo everywhere. Even with Gates. _Oh God._ What was she thinking? _Castle_. _Definitely his fault_. He's rubbed off on her. _Hah. NO!_ No! That was what got her into this whole mess. Not that it was a mess anywhere but her mind.

"That's great! You should call him up and tell him all about it."

"NO!" she yelled with her eyes wide, causing Ryan to jump back just a bit. She took another calming breath and said, "I mean, no. It would be better if I told him in person, don't you think? I think he'd appreciate that more."

"Okay. Yeah, I guess." he said and then added, "Are you sure you're okay, Beckett? I can cover for you for the day if you need to go – rest or something."

"No, no. I'm good. Thanks. I'll just… I'm going to go –", she said turning towards the break room, "- over there." And she walked off without further comment, and vowed never, _never,_ to tell Castle the exact nature of the conversation that would bring him back to the precinct.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Castle. I write fan fiction. I am not Captain Obvious.**

The rest of the day had been pretty quiet. There was an open and shut case that had taken a little under two days to solve. They'd booked the perp earlier and considering that they had been pretty quick about it, the paperwork was easily dealt with as well. Just as she was wrapping up for the day, smiling once at how easy it was to get back into the routine so quickly, she noticed that she had just received a text message.

'_Are we meeting?'_ Castle's text read.

She replied quickly. '_Yes. My place in 20.-K'_

The reply came in almost immediately. '_Okay. Are you hungry?'_

'_Sure, I'll order on the way home. –K'_

Another ping. '_Oh. I thought you just want me. ;)'_

She rolled her eyes and didn't bother with a reply. She was never going to hear the end of that. Then again, maybe she didn't want to. Not that she would let him know.

* * *

Almost exactly 20 minutes later, she got off the elevator and headed to the apartment to see Castle standing there with a pizza box in his hand and a smirk on his face.

"Hey. How long have you been waiting out here?", Kate asked as she searched for her keys in her pockets.

"Hey.", he answered and paused to steal a chaste kiss from her before saying more. "I like being able to do that."

She smiled at him shyly.

"Not long.", he said.

"Good. I was afraid the pizza might've gotten cold.", she smirked, not even bothering to look at his face as she led him inside.

"Your concern is positively touching."

She put her things on the table, took off her jacket and turned to him while he was still standing just inside the door with the pizza box. She took that from him too, placed it on the table close to the door and leaned in glancing fleetingly at his lips before looking right into his eyes. She leaned in even more, completely into his personal space but not even touch a hair on his skin, till she could feel his ragged breath on her face. She bit her lip to stop from smiling when she saw his eyes were closed. "No. It's not. This –", she whispered, "is positively touching.", and she pinched him hard on his shoulder.

"OW! HEY! That was mean!", he said with an adorable pout, while rubbing at the now tender spot. When he realized that she was laughing, he added, "Jeez. I come here on time, early in fact, and pay for dinner, and this is what I get in return."

She took a deep breath to control her laughter – she didn't really pinch him quite _that_ hard either. He could have quit with the drama by now. "That is exactly what you will get if you try to pay for dinner when it's my turn again. Got it?"

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh."

"You could've just paid me back. No need to abuse my ruggedly handsome body."

She rolled her eyes. He'd missed that recently and loved it, always. "So you could sneak the money back into my wallet when you think I'm not looking?" She made her way into the kitchen with the pizza box and was taking down plates and glasses for them.

He had the decency to look sheepish.

"Detective, remember?"

He smiled at that, and she could see that it was genuine, and full of love and – and pride? He confirmed as much by saying, "Yeah. Recently reinstated Detective Kate Beckett of the NYPD, 12th precinct."

She smiled back at him, secretly very happy that he cared so much. "Are you going to repeat that every day?"

"Mhmm. At least once every day. I am really, really happy for you.", he said as he made his way behind her while she poured each of them some soda, and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Thank you, Rick.", she said softly. "And, I have good news about that.", she said while turning in his arms and handing him his plate and glass.

"Yeah?", he asked enthusiastically, "Are you off probation already?" They made their way to the couch and placed their food and drinks on the table in front of it.

"Nope.", she said with an audible pop.

"And?"

"Aren't you supposed to be good at guessing?", she smiled and bit into her first slice.

"Oooh. Yes. Yes, I am. Hmmmm….", he hummed and stroked his non-bearded chin as if solving some great scientific mystery. "Ah! You went down to the morgue to meet Lanie…"

He'd started weaving a story. _Oh brother._ _This ought to be good_.

"…to see her about the latest victim. It was easy, an open and shut case, as you told me. But you had to go collect records anyway, and you thought that you might as well meet your best friend for a bit. On your way down, you called her. Surprisingly she tried to get you to go back, for once, she didn't want to see you. She said she would come to you with the files as soon as she was done. You, however, dismissed the notion and told her that it was no trouble, and that you were almost there anyway. She hurriedly cut the call. A few minutes later you settled your beautiful behind onto one of the clean autopsy tables and took in her slightly disheveled appearance and nervous manner."

By this time, Kate had already finished her first slice and picked up her second. She was enjoying this, so might as well let him continue.

"So you asked her if everything was okay. And she replied promptly. Yes. Yes, of course she was okay. Why wouldn't she be okay? Why she bothered is beyond me. I mean, as you so very recently pointed out, you're a trained detective _and_ her best friend. That was a little too prompt. Of course you knew something was up. And just as you're about to ask, the body that was covered with a crisp white sheet, next to the table that had the body of your victim, … "

"Yes?", she said, not caring too much for the dramatic pause.

"… SNEEZED!", he punctuated with a mock gasp.

Kate snorted, and quietly thanked the powers that be that she had been drinking the soda right at that moment. Before she could say anything, Rick interrupted her.

"Wait, I'm not done.", he waited for her nod to continue. "So, obviously shocked at the occurrence and even more baffled by the fact that Lanie had just facepalmed herself, you shouted, demanding to know what the hell was going on. Lanie told the 'corpse' something among the lines of, 'You can come out, you big oaf.' And to your horror, you saw a semi-naked Javier – only semi-naked cause he was hanging on to the white sheet', sitting up on the table, when he shouldn't even be there cause there's still a few days of suspension left – FINALLY confirming that we were right all along.", he took a deep breath of satisfaction and added so quickly that she almost couldn't make out the sentence, "And then you left to leave them alone, besides the dead guy of course."

_Well. Wow._ She was looking at him like he'd finally lost it. Or so she gathered from the look on his face. Her pizza was hanging almost limply off her hand, midway in the space between the plate and her face.

"What? Come on! That was brilliant!"

"First of all,", she started as she put her pizza back on the plate and narrowed her eyes at him, "I said guess, not give me a whole weird Castle theory. Second, it scares me a little that you even thought about such a detailed theory about Lanie and Espo – a very naked Espo. Third of all, that's not what happened. Just to be clear…"

"Meh. Too bad.", he said before shutting up at the sight of her glare.

"And fourth, Thanks a lot for the images, Castle."

He almost finished his slice of pizza all the while that she was talking, and she wasn't sure whether to be appalled or impressed. After he swallowed the last bite, he said, "I bet you've been dying to tell me point number four ever since you read page number 105."

He received a well aimed shot of a pillow to his face.

* * *

A while later as they were watching a movie that both of them had already seen – they picked it again just cause – and Kate's eyes were beginning to droop. She was obviously fighting to stay awake a little longer, to continue the night a little longer. Castle obviously noticed and wanted the same because he muted the movie and started talking again, while still tracing patterns on Kate's arm as she was cuddled into him.

"Hmm. Okay, next guess. Ryan and Jenny are having a baby."

She laughed. "No. That would be great news, though that's not it either. I'm surprised that you jumped from that elaborate concocted tale about Lanie and Javi to this. Next guess?"

"Oh! I didn't know you were quite so fond of my elaborate concocted tales. One Castle story coming right up –"

"What? That's not what I – "

" – for the beautiful cop with the bedroom voice. A very, very hot bedroom voice."

She swatted him on the chest with the back of her hand.

"Wow! You're so excited. Okay. SO. Hmm. Let's see. It has something to do with your reinstatement. Ah. Got it. Gates called you into her office."

Kate's eyes widened just a fraction.

"You were worried that this was going to be another lecture about something new you would have to do. Something like reporting in to her every five minutes and telling her every time you had coffee. She might as well spike your coffee with tracer nanobots. Actually, come to think of it, that's really brilliant isn't it? But.. Oh wait, no. I mean. She'd have New York's sewer system on the maps cause you'd obviously need to pe- "

"Castle!", she snapped.

"Wha? Oh yeah, getting off track. Sorry. Where was I? Yeah, so she'd called you in, and you think that she's going to enforce some new protocol. But, in fact, she's called you in to talk about us."

Kate suddenly pulled away and looked at him; her entire face etched with surprise.

"Oh my God! I'm close, aren't I?"

She didn't reply. He smirked and continued.

"Hmm. But why would you be so afraid that I guessed that. No – No. Not afraid. Embarrassed?"

"I'm not – "

"Oh yes you are. You're all blushy, and cute."

She raised her eyebrow. "Blushy?"

"Shush, don't interrupt. I'm on a roll.", he said and deftly held her hand that he'd anticipated would reach out for his ear.

She folded her arms and glared at him.

"She was calling you to … to … to tell you that she wanted me back working at the precinct because of my obvious brilliant mind, that occasionally borders on genius."

Kate smirked.

"Hmm. But you thought she was talking about something else."

He saw her look away and blush furiously.

_OMG. OMG. _

"OH! This is gooood. You thought she found out about us being together."

Her gaze snapped back to his so fast that he was sure she must've gotten whiplash. Her eyes were wide; eyebrows raised in surprise and her jaw dropped, almost comically. Or it would have been comical on him. Even _this_ look looked graceful on her.

"What? How did you – How?"

"OH MY GOD! That actually happened?", he knew he was grinning like a fool but he couldn't help it. "I was just spinning another wild theory. HAH! Wow. I'm better than even I think."

She drew her lips in a thin line then.

"What? Kidding. Okay, okay. I'll try to be serious. Um. So, does she know about us now? Are we in trouble?"

He asked so sincerely, the abrupt change in him making her smile.

"No. Actually, she wants you to come back to work. She wasn't quite so – openly praising you – as much as you just were. But yeah – "

"That's great.", he smiled and leaned in to kiss her.

It took only a moment for the kiss to get passionate, but she suddenly started smiling, so he pulled away, slightly dazed. "What?", he asked her.

She started laughing and clutching at her sides.

"Come on, share the joke. What's so funny?"

"She asked me –", she could barely even breathe, let alone talk. But the day's events were finally catching up to her.

Castle started laughing too. He looked so happy to see her so free; so – elated that his eyes crinkled and he laughed till he was starting to get breathless too. "What? What did she ask you?"

Through tears, and gasping for breath, she finally said, "She asked me if 'the big explosion' solved our issues."

Castle barked out his laughter. Both of them laughed, and laughed till it hurt too much and finally fell asleep on the couch in each others arms. If anyone saw them the next morning as they woke up, they would still see the joy, peace, and obvious love. Finally also having become obvious to them.

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, the end is sort of cheesy, but I'm always bad at ending chapters. And this was meant to be a one shot, but it's obviously not anymore. I have a few ideas about continuing it too, but I'm still not so sure about that. Hope you liked it. Thanks for reading. (Oh, and this is un-beta'd sorry if there are any mistakes)


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Castle.

**A/N:** Thank you to all who are reading, have subscribed for alerts and favorited this story. Thanks especially to those who have reviewed. I feel encouraged and honored.

Very importantly, for this chapter, I wanted to thank ThereAreOnlyBattles (Go read her stuff btw), and Deb838 for helping me out. Without them, this chapter would not be. Thank you both sooo much!

P.S. This is in Rick's perspective, so it's his thoughts in italics.

* * *

It had been three weeks since the day that Castle rejoined and one since Esposito did as well. Things had been getting easier on the work front since Castle had come back but they were still one man short of their team. Kate hoped that Espo's return would help return things to the way they should be, or at least close.

The rift between Esposito and Ryan was not helping anyone. It was grating on everybody's nerves. A very irritated Karpowski even told Beckett to either 'get her kids in line or leave them with a babysitter' so that the rest of them could function. After that, when Beckett had told them off, it had been eerily quiet, and intolerably cold.

Such was Beckett's need for things to get back to normal, that she asked Castle's help to concoct a plan.

"You want to what?", Kate asked him in disbelief as they stood in the break room in an attempt to escape from the cold vibe in the bullpen.

"Tell them. We should tell them.", Castle enunciated each word for her as he stood across from her and crossed his arms.

"I thought we were keeping this to ourselves for a while."

It made him snort and laugh in earnest. "We haven't kept this –", he said waving his hand between them only to get it slapped away lightly by her, "- ow. –between ourselves, ever!"

She glared at him and said, "What have you been telling people, Castle?"

"Don't need to say anything. They all have eyes.", he said, opening his eyes comically wide looking like a complete lunatic. "They don't know our relationship status, but that doesn't stop them from guessing and theorizing."

"Right. Anyway. You think we should tell them?", Kate asked nervously.

Rick's expression sobered up and she could see the tenderness shine through his eyes. "Not everyone. Just our family. Ryan and Esposito have been like brothers to you for the longest time, and when I joined you all, they kind of adopted me into this family as much as you did. Actually, they were probably more open to it at first that you were."

She smiled at the man who had a heart of gold. And she winced internally at the levels of sappiness she was reaching today. "I guess that's true. Er. You think that'll help solve things between them though?"

"Pfft. Of course. Love brings the world together! Didn't you read Harry Potter?"

She rolled her eyes. "Castle, this is real life, not some story about magic and love."

"What? Why not? Magic is where you find it, my love.", he winked.

_Sappy day. Oh, but the blush is worth it._

He continued, "Besides you actually have a lot in common with Harry." He sighed, realizing what he had just said, and judging from the look on her face, she realized it too.

There actually were more things in common than she would like. The loss of her mother -though at least she had 19 years with her. Better than none at all, the loss of her mentor, just like Dumbledore, Montgomery had fought for the greater good though he had his faults. The loss of so many people along the road.

But Rick commented again, "Of course, that would make me Ginny. Ew. Nevermind, we're scraping that analogy." He shuddered and she laughed. _Mission accomplished_.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"I want to hug you so badly right now.", he said through gritted teeth and clutched the table to stop from doing just that.

"Save it for later.", she placed her empty cup in the sink. "We'll tell them tonight after Gates leaves."

"You want to do it here?"

She smirked and bit her lip.

"Not – uhm .. well, that too?", he grinned at her and looked so much like a little boy asking for candy that she had to laugh.

"It'll be easier here."

He looked around, cataloging the place.

"- to tell them. Rick, mind out of the gutter please."

_Hmpf._

"I think we'd have a hard time getting both of them in one place otherwise. They'll suspect that something's up."

"Something is up!", Rick said.

"Yeah. But if they _think_ it's a scheme to get them to talk, they probably won't show.", she said.

"True. We'll lure them to one of the conference rooms – after Gates is gone – and just tell them. Sounds good to me.", he said.

"Yup. And we can tell them that we need their help in keeping this a secret from everyone else. We can tell them that Gates has begun to suspect something and we can't have that 'cause she'd have you out of here before we can say the word 'relationship'."

"And most likely she would also think that Ryan and Esposito were helping us keep it a secret for so long so they might fall in trouble too."

"Great. Sounds like a plan. We should get back before Gates actually does start to suspect anything."

"She's always suspicious.", he said, frowning slightly, "And she always thinks it's my fault.", he pouted, making her laugh as she turned to leave the break room.

* * *

_In the conference room, after Rick made sure that Gates had truly left. _

Esposito asked straight off, in a no nonsense manner, "Is this about the case?"

"Um.. No actually.", Rick said, sharing a look with Kate.

"Then I'm leaving, bro. I have work to do.", Esposito said and made his way to the door only to get blocked by Rick.

"We have something important to tell you guys.", Beckett said in a serious tone.

"Oh. Is this about _the_ case? I thought you put that behind you, Beckett.", Ryan said, looking sad.

"No, no. I did. It's not about that. Can you guys just – sit down please?"

There were two empty chairs that were glared at, for no other reason than that they were next to each other.

"Okay. Don't sit.", Rick finally said and both Ryan and Espo turned to glare at him instead.

Kate cleared her throat and took his hand and placed it on the table for them to see clearly. She looked to Rick and drew strength from his grip and smile. "We – "

Both their eyes were as big as saucers. They glanced for the briefest of seconds at each other and Esposito cut her off. "How long?"

"A few weeks.", she replied.

"A FEW WEEKS?", Ryan barked out and then looked at Esposito, "Bro, weeks!"

_Why are they mad?_

"I heard! I can't believe this!", Esposito replied.

_Okay. Not sure what to make of this._

"And you're just telling us _now_?", Ryan asked, crossing his arms and looking angry.

_Uh oh. Ryan never looks angry._

"Does Lanie know?", he asked Beckett.

"Err.. well. Yeaaah?", she drew out.

_No Kate. Show no fear. They'll eat us alive! … !_

Espo crossed his arms too, and shared a look with Ryan, obviously holding a silent conversation at the end of which they nodded slightly to each other. They both moved closer to each other and glared at Rick and Kate.

"It's been weeks. We've been with you since four years.", Espo said.

"Four years!", Ryan repeated in anguish. "Four years we stood by, encouraging you knuckleheads."

Kate and Rick turned to look at each other, both surprised, even more nervous since before, and slightly spooked at Ryan's words that echoed Rick's. They were supposed to be putting out the fire, not igniting it.

_Wait. Did he just call us knuckleheads? What the - ? _"Uhm –", Rick started, trying to look angry too. And utterly failing.

"Don't 'uhm' at us. How could you? All the times that we tried to help you get in her good books. Some of the times you didn't even know we were doing it.", Espo glared at him.

He opened his mouth to speak but was cut off.

"Exactly _when_ did this happen?", Ryan asked angrily.

"The day I resigned.", Kate said, although it sounded slightly like a question.

"The day you – you mean the day you almost died.", Esposito said, adding, "Again."

Ryan repeated again, "Four years! You've been almost dying. Almost shot.", he said pointing at Beckett.

They winced.

Esposito pointed at Castle, "Then you would have been shot if she didn't stop the guy."

_What? Oh .. He meant that first time ever that he's seen her almost shot. And the first time that he was almost shot._

Ryan picked up, "Russian mobsters would have choked you bare handed.", he said pointing at Castle.

_Oooooh. Hot Russian Beckett. Good old days. Heh._

One by one, they were each listing the ways that Castle and Beckett almost died in the last four years.

"Almost shot again.", Espo waved at Castle.

"Almost blown to bits.", Ryan said to Kate.

"Almost shot by Dunn.", Espo said to Kate.

"Almost shot each other.", Ryan said referring to their first case after he got back from the Hamptons trip.

"Almost choked by a rope.", Esposito said, adding a "Sorry to bring it up, bro", to Ryan. Ryan shook his head dismissing it and turned back to the ever paling duo.

"Almost killed by a trained assassin.", Ryan said, referring to Lockwood. "The first trained assassin."

"Almost got radiation poisoning."

Castle tried to interject, "That wasn't actually – ", but they trudged on. He was glad Kate hadn't let go of his hand.

"Almost froze.", Ryan said.

"Exploded.", Espo added and Ryan nodded.

They were starting to sound like a macabre rap song now. It was lovely how synchronized they were. Lovely and scary as hell. Rick was glad that his phone had been recording the whole ordeal. Of course, he'd meant to record their reactions of surprise and joy. But this was good too. _This would make for an awesome song at the wedding. Wedding! _He choked slightly. _And this is a thought that mustn't be voiced out loud. Ever!_ He looked at Beckett, trying to see whether she'd read his mind. But she was paying attention to the Ryspo rap of almost deaths.

"Actually Shot."

"And actually died.", Espo said, shaking his head.

_And an actual one._ He sighed.

"Does dying of a broken heart count?", Ryan pointed at Castle while looking at Espo, and received a "Sure bro.", from him.

"Exploded again."

"Shot again."

"Eaten by a tiger."

_Oh yeah. Whatever happened to 'next time without the tiger'?_

"Drowned."

"Shot again."

"And it took fighting with the second trained assassin and almost falling off the roof to realize that you've fallen in love?"

"No, I just didn't – ", Kate tried to say.

"Nuh uh, chica.", Esposito said.

"Dude, they've waited for weeks to tell us!", Ryan said in exasperation.

"I know, bro.", Esposito said, placing an across his shoulders. "Shame on you two."

Rick and Kate looked on. There wasn't really much else that they could do. Rick felt a little like he was sitting in a corner of a classroom wearing a dunce cap.

"Yeah. Shame on you. _We'd_ never keep something so big from you.", Ryan said sadly. "Right bro?", he added in uncertainty.

"Damn straight." Espo said and pulled him into a manly, backslapping, quick hug. "I'm sorry, bro."

Rick looked at Kate. She looked as confused, and happy at the same time – if that were even possible – as he felt.

"Me too. We're good?"

"We're the best. Unlike _those_ two.", he glared again at Castle and Beckett.

"We're sorry.", Beckett said.

"We really are sorry, guys.", Castle.

Esposito huffed. "You two– ", he pointed at them, "Are going to get us morning coffees for two weeks."

"No! A month!", Ryan said.

"Yeah.", Esposito said, hoping they weren't pushing it.

"Consider it done.", Castle said quickly. Beckett added, "It's the least we could do. Are we okay now?"

"We will be.", Esposito said with a small smile.

"Congratulations.", Ryan and he both said. Castle and Beckett quickly explained to them that no one else could know, and asked if they'd help keep it a secret for a little longer and they received choruses of 'duh', 'do you even have to ask?'

As they both left the conference room, Castle heard Ryan saying, "You want to come over for dinner, man? Jenny's cooking her famous Chicken thing that I can't ever pronounce. You should bring Lanie too."

"Sure bro. I love her Chicken thing that you can't pronounce. Sounds great. I'm gonna have a nice little talk with Lanie too."

Back in the conference room, Castle and Beckett stood against the table, stunned.

"What just happened?", Castle asked softly.

"Has Alexis ever done that to you?"

"Thoroughly schooled me? Always.", he said with an eye crinkling smile and then added, "But that was something else."

"Hmm. At least they're okay now.", she said with her eyebrows furrowed.

"Yeah. Great. I'm not sure if that was easier than I thought it would be or much, much worse.", he said, thinking about it. "I think I lost my appetite though."

"Me too. We've been almost dying too often for my liking."

"And actually dying." He nodded. "Let's try to stop doing that.

She nodded.

* * *

Outside the precinct, Esposito turned to Ryan. "Finally."

"I know, right? Mom and Dad are back.", Ryan said fondly.

"Yeah. Hey, good job with the coffee thing."

"Ah! Thanks. A month's supply of good, expensive coffee."

He laughed. "We totally played them."

Ryan laughed too. "They're so easy sometimes. We won the bet right?"

Espo said, "Yup. But we can't tell anyone yet so we can't collect the winnings."

"All the more for us if anyone keeps placing bets."

He smirked and thumped Ryan on the back. "We're rich."

xXx

**A/N:** Okay. I'm not sure if this landed up being too serious or not. I tried to inject humor into it. And whatever the content, I always find a Rysposito rap extremely funny. This kind of reminds me of the scene where Ryspo list off the synonyms to 'perp' to Castle back in season 1. Hope you liked it. : )


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Castle. Yada, yada, bleh bleh blah.

**A/N:** Again, thank you to all who have followed, favorited and reviewed this little fic. Thank you for continuing to read it. : )

* * *

Smooth sailing. That's how it was for Beckett's team at the 12th since the last couple of weeks. Cases were being closed left, right and center. Castle was even helping with paperwork. He had an ulterior motive. He got to take her out for dinner or to the loft or her place if they finished early. And spending time outside the precinct was great incentive for him. Beckett now knew this useful information and used it to her advantage. She could have started years ago really.

Ever since their big reveal to Ryan and Esposito, they'd been doing well on the job front. The camaraderie was something for all the other teams to envy. They really were a family. They had come to some sort of unspoken agreement to actually follow protocol. Much to everyone's surprise – most of all Gates. She still looked at them suspiciously, like she was a mother waiting to see the dirty hands of her kids returned from the playground. But like Castle had told her just a week ago, Gates is always suspicious. _And_ she does always think that it's Castle's fault – directly or indirectly.

Outside the precinct, they were still a family. Occasionally both her family and Castle's would come together for a poker night at his loft. They even had boy-time with their video games at his loft. It was Madden last week. Kate even had girl time with Lanie, and they had invited Alexis along. Ever since she'd started the internship with Lanie at the morgue, not only had Lanie and Alexis grown a kind of friendship, but things between Kate and Alexis were going well too. The girl had started to understand and appreciate the kind of work that Kate did, day in and day out, and was proud that her father really was there to help pull murderers off the street.

Kate felt a kind of giddy-happiness that she hadn't experienced in a long, long time. She was glad their family knew about them. There was nothing to hide anyway. Not from them. Martha and Lanie still say that Castle and Beckett were in a relationship for years and that most people could see it, even if they couldn't acknowledge it. "It's about damn time", Lanie had said.

_Yup._ _About damn time._ She was stirring her coffee in the break room while Castle was outside chatting with the guys, trying to cheer them up. It had been a tough day; a tough case. It was the first case since she had rejoined, that had been slow going. They hardly had any leads. The persons of interest they had listed earlier in the day all had solid alibis. They were all tired, but she was still happy. While waiting for Castle to join her in the break room, she thought back to almost a month ago when they'd told Lanie about their relationship.

Okay, not true. A month ago, Lanie Parish had correctly guessed about the change in the status of their relationship and had left no stone unturned while threatening Castle with bodily harm, were he ever to break Kate's heart.

* * *

_Nearly a month ago_.

Castle and Kate made their way into the morgue to see about a body related to their case. It wasn't their victim, but a fresh drop that showed signs of a similar M.O. After briefly informing the duo of her observations, Lanie took of the gloves and sat on an empty autopsy table so that she was facing them.

"Writer Boy, Gates actually let you back too? Or did you pull out your 'I-know-the-mayor' card again?"

He glanced at Kate.

The corners of her lips were twitching as she remembered the whole fiasco with in Gates' office.

He grinned widely and faced the best friend, Medical Examiner. "Gates _wanted_ me back."

Apparently the M.E. wasn't buying it. She raised her eyebrow in askance, looking thoroughly skeptical and slightly bemused. Kate was looking at Castle too intently to have noticed that Lanie noticed her staring at Castle.

"No, really! She asked Beckett to her office one day, and told her that the NYPD had a fantastic solve rate since I've been with them and that she no longer thinks I'm a distraction but rather an asset and so she wanted me to get back to shadowing Beckett."

Lanie turned to Kate with an even more skeptical expression and asked her, "Girl, did he bang his head real hard recently?"

Castle guffawed so loudly that he might just have woken up the dead. Kate checked to make sure. _No. The body still seems stationary. _His face was streaming with tears and he was gasping for breath. Kate, by then, was turning into various shades of scarlet and was trying hard to avoid her best friend's eyes.

_In a relationship with a perpetual teenager. Way to go, Kate._

After about 10 minutes – it took that long for Castle to calm down somewhat – Lanie finally caught up. "Oh. My. God.", Lanie said. She looked to Castle who just shrugged and then looked at Kate till she dared to look back. Kate gave her a small smile and an even smaller nod. "OH MY GOD!", she squealed and her arms were moving in a way that Kate could only label as 'flailing'.

"It's about damn time.", she said a couple of minutes worth of jumping later. Castle's grin just seemed to grow. "When did this happen?"

After explaining the events with a little bit of detail about the stormy night in question – _heh . Stormy indeed. Thunda down unda. God! Mental note to look for brain bleach on google. Castle's thought processes are apparently contagious – _Kate told Lanie that she and Castle were truly, positively, miraculously, finally a very real thing. Lanie congratulated them and then proceeded to lecture them on how they should listen to her more often, and how she thought she'd have to lock them in a room to make any kind of progress. She scolded both of them over how foolish they had been and once she'd calmed down, she got off the table and made her way to the box of gloves on another table near-by and started donning them.

Kate and Castle made to move but Lanie told them to stop. She indicated that had things to say to Castle, and Kate might as well wait while she said them.

"So, Writer Boy – ", she started in a serious tone. "Are you gonna take things seriously? Or will you go back to your old ways and start appearing in magazines and such with a new model on each arm every month?"

"What? Lanie, how can you even ask that? I love Kate. I'd never do anything to hurt her.", he said sincerely.

They saw Lanie's façade slip for just a second when he said the 'L' word but she pulled it back as quickly. "You'd better not hurt my girl, Castle. You know, I've been doing this job for a long ass time. I know things."

"Uhm. I'm sure you do…?", Castle said, confused.

"No, Castle. _I KNOW THINGS_."

Castle's eyes widened as Lanie picked up a scalpel and headed towards them. He took a step back till she stopped at the autopsy table near the body and started to make incisions. Kate had to work hard to suppress her laughter.

"O – okay.", Castle spluttered. He tried to reach for Kate's hand but she wasn't going to help him out here. This was too much fun to watch.

"See, there are many ways for a person to die, Castle.", Lanie continued. "There's the simple penetrating kind of wounds – like a jab to the lung with a say, a scalpel. Imagine that. All the air just whooshing out. _Whoosh_.", she punctuated her words as she did indeed jab the scalpel slightly into the corpse. "Or, a person could unwittingly get injected with a deadly poison. Even the smallest prick with an infected nail can cause Tetanus. Did you know?", she asked innocently as she finally looked up.

Castle gulped.

"Some poisons, once ingested, can cause all kinds of havoc and then they're quickly thrown out of the body or metabolized. Nearly undetectable. What a way to go, right? But of course, you know all this. Mystery writer and all.", she smiled coyly.

"Yea – yeah.", he squeaked.

"I suppose you've thought of horrible ways that a psychopath could torture his victim before just killing him. Maybe something as bad as anesthetizing him, ripping open his abdomen and wringing his guts. And then just waiting for him to wake up to agonizing pain….. Or maybe something lower down.", Lanie said as she examined the intestines.

Castle actually crossed his legs and started poking himself with his index finger as if to make sure everything was in place.

"Okay, that's enough Lanie.", Kate finally said as she laid her hand over his on his torso and patted his butt gently with her other hand. "He won't hurt me. Right, Castle?"

"Right. Never.", he said in a high pitch, and then cleared his throat and added, "Never ever ever ever ever…."

Kate rolled her eyes and Lanie laughed. "We got it. Jeez Lanie, it'll be your fault if he starts waking up with nightmares."

"Oh, that's alright. You'll be there to make them go away.", she said with a wink to both of them. "Besides, I was just giving him ideas for his books. Right Writer-boy?"

"Sure.", he said. "Can we go now?", pleaded with Kate and both of the girls laughed.

As they turned to leave, Castle let out a relieved breath and Kate turned slightly to wave at Lanie and told her, "It's Writer Man, Lanie." She patted his butt once more and laughed when he yelped.

* * *

She was brought out of her musings as Castle approached her to return his now empty cup.

"Hey. What's got you smiling so much?"

"Hey.", she replied softly, "Nothing. Just – thinking."

"Hmm. Whatever it is, keep thinking it. You look beautiful.", he said as he placed one hand on her hip as if to steady himself, his other hand returning the empty cup to the sink.

"Are you going to head home soon? It's pretty late."

"Are you?"

"I'll be here for a little while long to wrap things up. You should go though. You're supposed to help Alexis pack tonight, right?"

He smiled. "Yeah. Will I be seeing you tonight?"

She smiled sadly and shook her head. "No. You do your thing. I'm tired to. I'll see you tomorrow?"

He sighed and pouted. "Fine. Tomorrow.", and then he smiled. "But can I have a hug?" Pleeeeease?", he asked.

When she just looked on with a bemused expression he made puppy dog eyes at her.

_Darn._

"We're at work, Castle.", she said.

He heard her tone though, and she realized as much from his grin.

"But I'll miss you.", he said, surprisingly keeping the whine out of his voice.

She rolled her eyes. "It's one night, Castle."

"One night during which I'll miss you."

_Sigh_.

"Fine.", she said. "But just a quick hug."

"I'm all for quickies."

_There's the teenager again._

"Castle – "

"For real?", he asked with a small grin.

"Oh God. Yes, for Pete's sake. Come here, you big lug.", she said as she grabbed his shirt and yanked him to her and hugged him.

She had meant for it to be a quick hug. She really did. But he gave such good hugs. When he finally pulled back and started to leave, she turned back to the coffee machine with a small smile.

As he headed towards the elevator, Ryan and Esposito never saw his expression but could have easily guessed. They were too manly to 'awwww…'

Thank God for it, because they were both jolted back to reality when they heard a throat clearing behind them. They turned slowly and winced as they stood face to face with Captain Gates.

"Detectives. Was that what I think it was?", she asked sternly, crossing her arms.

"Uh.", Ryan said.

"No, sir!", Esposito said.

"No? So Detective Beckett wasn't just hugging Mr. Castle in the break room?"

They both glanced at each other. Beckett was looking over some files in the break room while drinking her second cup of coffee.

"It's not what you think.", Ryan said.

* * *

**A/N: **Dun dun duuuuun. Tune in to find out what happens in the next installment of 'Open Gates'. *Cue cheesy end of show – credits music*

Any guesses?


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** I very recently got a Doctor's degree. I'm pretty sure I make less money than the Castle folks. *sigh*

**A/N:** Thank you readers and reviewers, for your continued support. Much love to you all. : )

The reviews have been so encouraging. I feel wuvvved. Now, lv2bnsb1 got really close to guessing what happens, tshlw got an element of it right. And if I hadn't had something in mind already, I would totally use kimmiesjoy's version of Kate's magical hugs. Go read that, it's hilarious. So good going guys! Either ya'll are great at guessing, or I'm predictable - whatever. :P Enjoy.

P.S. This one has Esposito's thoughts in italics at first and then Kate's. You'll see when you get to it.

* * *

_5 minutes ago_

_They turned slowly and winced as they stood face to face with Captain Gates._

"_Detectives. Was that what I think it was?", she asked sternly, crossing her arms._

"_Uh.", Ryan said._

"_No, sir!", Esposito said._

"_No? So Detective Beckett wasn't just hugging Mr. Castle in the break room?"_

_They both glanced at each other. Beckett was looking over some files in the break room while drinking her second cup of coffee._

"_It's not what you think.", Ryan said._

* * *

_5 minutes later_

"Okay. Then tell me what it was.", Gates said as she stared down her two detectives.

"You see…Sir, it's a long story…", Esposito spluttered ineloquently.

She just raised her eyebrows.

So he elbowed Ryan on the side because for some reason, Esposito's partner was finding something on his cell more interesting than their current situation. Gates didn't seem to notice, probably because Ryan had moved so close that their arms were brushing. He didn't dare say anything.

Late – _sigh_ – Captain Montgomery's words of wisdom were echoing through his head as he was trying to salvage the situation. _When he had said that partners should stand together through thick and thin, this is _so_ not what he meant._ He tried, subtly, to push Ryan so that there would be a little distance between them, but the little weasel suddenly shoved something into his back pocket.

He wasn't expecting that. And from the look on Gates' face, she wasn't expecting Esposito's hips to cant forwards, along with a yelp.

"Detective Esposito! What is the meaning of this?", she said in a harsh whisper, looking just the slightest bit embarrassed.

"Uh. Sorry, Sir. I've been having these – these – butt cramps all day long. They just come and go."

_Butt cramps? _He winced internally.

Ryan added, not so helpfully, "It's true. I told him put some ice down there – ", he trailed off and his eyes got wide realizing what he just said.

Gates shook her head and looked at Ryan, evidently trying to avoid Esposito and his … butt. "You were saying?"

"Yes sir. So, what happened was, was that – Castle's been in this sort of funk all day. I mean, don't get us wrong, he was plenty helpful on the case. But he's been a little off."

"Yeah. Something was wrong.", Esposito pitched in.

"Earlier he suddenly started crying!"

_Crying?_

"Crying?", Gates asked skeptically. "Do you expect me to believe that Mr. Castle, a fully grown man was crying at the precinct?"

Ryan nodded. "He was bawling!"

_There goes the man's dignity down the drain._

Esposito picked up from there. "Only for a few minutes. We weren't expecting it either. But is it really that much of a surprise?"

Gates was still avoiding Esposito. "Well. I suppose not. He does seem like he never grew up when it comes to a few things, and sometimes he comes across as metrosexual.", she murmured, more to herself than them.

"Exactly!", Ryan said, taking the opening. "I mean, have you seen his shirts? The man is always immaculately dressed. And his hair is always perfect."

_Over selling it._ Esposito wanted to facepalm himself. Or maybe facepalm Ryan. "Bro, have you seen _your_ shirts?"

"What's wrong with my clothes?", he asked, looking down at himself, "Jenny picked this suit for me."

"Of course she did."

More throat clearing.

They both turned to Gates. Ryan's cheeks looked slightly pinker than usual.

"So he was all … sad all day. And he's always so nice to us. We thought one of us should talk to him about it."

"That someone had to be Detective Beckett? And since when does hugging constitute as 'talking'?"

"No! Well, we couldn't all very well leave our _work_ to deal with Castle."

"How very efficient of you, Detective.", Gates said flatly.

"So we played Roshambo.", Ryan plowed on, ignoring the jibe.

_!...!_

_Private classes with Castle._ Esposito decided what he would gift Ryan for his birthday this year. _What the f-_

"Roshambo?", Gates repeated in surprise.

"You know, Rock – paper – scissors?", Ryan said flailing his fisted hand wildly in front of Gates' face, almost nicking her nose till Esposito dragged it back to his side.

"I _know_ what Roshambo is.", she said, narrowing her eyes.

They all turned to the break room when they heard a loud thump. Esposito at least, couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. They could worry about that later. _One catastrophe at a time._

"Of course you do.", Ryan said, looking sheepish and added for good measure, "Sir."

"Beckett lost.", Esposito added to this ridiculous lie.

"So we sent him to her when she went to the break room for her – uh – break."

Esposito watched as Gates stood there thinking for a minute. Digesting the story. Probably looking for plot holes. _There is no plot. We'll all be digging holes for our graves._

"He looked like he was in a good mood when he was talking to both of you."

Ryan looked alarm and turned to Esposito. Apparently he had run out of ingenious ideas to prolong this story. _Ah well. What are partners for? Wipe that sweat of your forehead bro._ He tried to communicate with his eyes that he's got this.

Esposito said in a confident voice. "That was our doing. We didn't want Beckett to deal with it by herself so we tried to lighten the mood. Get him to talk a little before he went in there. And by the time we were done with him, he must've felt better."

Ryan looked relieved. "Yeah. We've been working with Beckett for years now. I guess we've picked up some of her interrogation techniques.", he said with a grin.

_Interro- God! If Beckett heard what they were saying, Gates would be far less frightening a prospect to deal with._

"Interrogation. Okay, so why was Mr. Castle 'in a funk', as you say?"

"Uh – ", Esposito started.

"It's his daughter!", Ryan suddenly exclaimed.

"His daughter? Is everything okay?", Gates asked.

The concern in her voice shocked both of them into momentary speechlessness.

"Detectives?", she prompted.

Ryan hastened to answer. "Wha-? Oh yeah. Yes. She's fine. It's just that she's leaving for college soon."

"Oh! Is she going somewhere far?"

"Erm. No, she's going to Columbia."

Gates rolled her eyes. "And he's sad enough about that to 'bawl'?", she asked while making air quotes.

They both shrugged. "He's an over protective father.", Esposito said.

"Yeah. Maybe it's male menopause.", Ryan added.

_! _

"Male menopause.", Gates again repeated his words in a flat tone.

"Yeah, you know –"

When he saw the look on Gates' face, Esposito elbowed Ryan hard. "She _knows_ what male menopause is, Kev!"

Gates still looked chagrined, so Ryan added, "Not through – like, personal experience or anything, sir. I just meant -", this time Esposito did facepalm himself. "I'll just shut up now."

"Anyway, that's probably why she was hugging him, sir. She was just consoling him. Maybe he started crying again?", Esposito said.

"This is ridiculous.", she said as she straightened her arms and brought them to her sides.

_We're all screwed._

"Yes sir. But it's true. You can ask Beckett if you want.", Ryan said confidently.

_NO! Bro!_

"I think I'll do just that", she regarded them just a second longer before heading towards the break room.

Esposito's eyes widened. After she was out of earshot, he turned to Ryan and said, "Bro! What the hell was that? And why'd you send her after Beckett?"

"Relax, man.", he said as he reached out to Esposito's back pocket again. _If he wasn't married, he'd be dead by now._ "See?", he said as he pulled out his cell. Beckett heard the whole thing. At least – I hope she did."

"You'd better hope she missed some of it. Why'd you shove that in my pocket, man?", he asked, slightly irritated, and kind of impressed.

"I wore my tight pants today.", Ryan said by way of explaining.

* * *

_In the break room, roughly 20 minutes ago._

"Hello?", Beckett said as she picked up the call. No one answered, but she thought she heard Gates' voice.

"_Okay. Then tell me what it was."_, she heard Gates saying. She looked at the caller id. It was Ryan calling her. So she looked out the break room window to see them talking to Gates and quickly brought the phone back to her ear.

The voices suddenly got a little softer and slightly muffled so she turned up the volume just as Esposito was explaining his supposed butt-cramp. She snorted.

She wasn't really sure what she was listening to but it sounded like fun so she kept the phone to her ear while sipping coffee.

Only… _Castle's been in a funk all day? What are they talking about? He was perfectly fine._

And. _What the hell, Ryan?_ She nearly choked on her coffee.

"_Do you expect me to believe that Mr. Castle, a fully grown man was crying at the precinct?"_, she heard Gates say.

_Okay, so the fully grown part is debatable but – crying? What on Earth? And this coming from Ryan, of all people. Castle would be so sad to hear that from him that he might - … Oh. Maybe it wasn't so farfetched after all._

She brought her hand to her face as she continued to listen. Gates thought he was metrosexual? Oh, he's all man. Okay, so maybe he's a _little_ metrosexual but, that's a good thing. She fought the urge to go defend him that very instant. Instead she kept listening.

"_That someone had to be Detective Beckett? And since when does hugging constitute as 'talking'?"_, she heard Gates' voice say.

_OH NO!_ _She saw that!_ And her boys were trying to cover for her. She suddenly felt an overpowering surge of affection for them till -

_Roshambo? Oh my God, Ryan._ He would never have made it in vice, she thought as her head fell onto the table.

She listened in horror as they rambled on with their highly flawed, completely unbelievable and very unlikely story. _Male menopause? Really?_ She thought about telling Castle off about the PDA that led to this whole mess, but really, this was punishment enough. Even if he never came to know any of it happened.

Finally Gates voice said, _"I think I'll do just that"_.

Beckett quickly pulled a couple of the open files towards her as she saw Gates headed her way. Then she cut the call and put the phone on the table, picking up her now-cold coffee instead. She winced, but gulped it down.

"Detective Beckett?"

She stood up. "Yes sir?", she asked innocently. Or so she hoped.

"Would you care to explain why I saw you embracing Mr. Castle a little while earlier?", she said sternly.

_Ah. Straight to the point then_

"Well, sir, it all started earlier in the day. Castle's been acting strangely. Stranger than usual I mean. He's been having these mood swings. He even cried earlier – ", she explained patiently – _lied_ patiently and hoped to God that Castle would find some humor in this and forgive her – if she ever told him. Well she'd have to, right? In case Gates tries to break him? _Later. Worry about that later._

As she trudged on through the explanation, she saw Gates' expression change from one of utter disbelief to total incredulity. She could see that Gates was struggling to believe what she was being told but it was probably so much in corroboration – _God, it sounds like a corroboration to a witness statement – _with what the boys had just said that she had no other option but to nod stiffly once as she finally finished her story.

"Tell Mr. Castle that he doesn't have to come in to work if he needs the time. We've done fine without him and will continue to do so."

"I think he's okay now, sir. He'll be back to normal tomorrow. I'm sure of it.", she said hoping that this of all things, wouldn't result in Castle needing to stay away from the precinct. Away from her. They had to be more careful. "And we've talked it through. He realized that he's being ridiculous."

* * *

_20 minutes later in the bullpen_

Gates had left not longer than 10 minutes ago when Kate started to put on her coat too. "I think that's enough for tonight. We're not getting anywhere anyway and we'll need those reports from the lab to go any further."

"Sure thing, boss.", Esposito said as he watched her intently.

She hadn't said anything when she returned to the bullpen earlier and he couldn't even get a read from her face or demeanor.

"Is everything okay, Beckett?", Ryan asked her warily.

"Everything is fine, Ryan.", she said with a small smile. "Thank you, boys."

She passed them as they answered with "you're welcome", "we've got your back" and "no sweat", in chorus. She waved over her shoulder in acknowledgement, still walking, and threw over her shoulder, "Hey Javi, I'd really see somebody about those butt cramps if I were you. Maybe you should get Lanie to take a look. 'Night butt cramps, tight pants! I'll see you guys tomorrow."

* * *

**A/N 2: **Who else thinks Ryan needs lessons from Castle? Maybe Espo does too. Thoughts?


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: **Clearly I don't own Castle.

**A/N:** So, honestly I had no idea where to go from there (there being the cliff-dive that was chapter 5) buuhuut… Polly Lynn (Readers, If you've not read her TARDIS (it's Castle, not Doctor Who) series, you're missing out.) came up with this awesome idea. Oh ah, and the title is all her too. And next thing I know, I'm it. Erm.. Okay, so I took it upon myself, but that's beside the point. Here goes nothin'…

Also, Thanks to my buddy, CharleyCarey for helping with the research.

P.S. We're back to the inner gutter-mind workings of Kate Beckett for the first half-ish. And Ryan's mind in the second half-ish.

* * *

_For Polly Lynn_._ Thank you for the idea and help!_

* * *

Chapter 6: Cockblocking: The Revengeance

"He said what?"

There were about eight different times that Castle had asked Kate this exact question in the past hour, the tone and pitch of the question changing along with his expressions and her retelling of the story. He couldn't believe some of the things that Esposito had said and even less, some of the things that had come out of Ryan's mouth. He really didn't expect any of it from either of them. At some points in the story, Kate could've sworn that she saw his lips twitch with laughter but he hid it well under the ruse of indignation.

He paced back and forth in front of the couch where Kate was sitting, muttering to himself. "No good little sneaks. Bawling!", he huffed, while still muttering mostly to himself. "Like I'd ever cry at the precinct.", he said, pausing momentarily, "or anywhere I mean. After everything we've been through together. All those times I've invited them over for gaming and partying. Forget that. All those times that I've let 'em off the hook. Do you know how many times I've wanted to shove them down a stairwell, or .. or .. choke them with my bare hands, or hit them on the head with a frying pan?"

_A few minutes – and a well suppressed yawn by Kate – later_

What was he even going on… and on, and on, and on about?

"They're homicide detectives, for crying out loud. They couldn't come up with something better? Why did they give me male menopause_?"_, Castle had ranted on for a good while again before he turned his back on her and walked into the office. Skulking! Like a little boy. Or so she thought.

How exactly was she supposed to answer that? She thought so too. They were homicide detectives. It was their business to detect lies. They'd spent years weeding out liars and subsequently nailing murderers. Why on Earth were they so terrible at making up a believable story?

Then again, they were under pressure and they didn't crack. They held their own in front of Gates. Hmm. Okay, they barely held it together in front of Gates, but the fact of the matter is that they tried. _And it's the thought that counts._

She'd told him earlier, in a stern tone, trying to defend her boys, "Castle, not everyone is a naturally gifted story-teller like you. At least they tried."

She'd felt like she was defending her kids to their father. Something along the lines of, '_Come on, honey. They're just being kids.'_ Only, in the scenarios she'd worked out in her mind, she was usually doing the telling off, and he was usually doing the consoling. And _HEY-OH!_ When had these scenarios made their way into her mind?

That's about the point where he stomped off into his office. In retrospect, he didn't so much stomp off as run off. He didn't skulk either. That was her mind, trying to fit her imagined reactions into his actual ones. In reality, his face lit up, like it so often does when he gets a case-breaking epiphany. His smirk had grown the second '_like you_' had left her mouth. So what was she doing out here, when he's in there doing – whatever non-skulking thing he's doing? Oh, _and_ his eyes had the evil glint like they do when he's on the brink of something big; _usually_ _something_ _naughty_. Not that she knew anything about that. _That's it. Mind's gone a'roaming places._

Just as she shook her head to free herself from the self-induced daze, Castle came out of his office, rubbing his hands together. _Uh oh._ "Whatever you're planning, forget it."

"But I didn't even say – ", Castle started, trying (and utterly failing) to look innocent.

"You don't have to say it. I can feel you thinking about it.", Kate said. Her eyes were narrowed in a not quite fully formed glare.

"Oh yeah? Then what is it that I'm thinking about, Sherlock?", Castle said, apparently quite unfazed by her almost-glare.

"I don't know. But whatever it is, count me out. You're on your own."

"Oh come on!", he said with a cute pout.

_Cute pout? Kate, Kate, Kate …_

He went on without giving her a chance to give in to at least hearing about it. "Just think about it, Kate.", he started while looking off into the distance somewhere over her shoulder. "Think of all those times that those two half-wits – and I mean that in the nicest way of course –"

"Course you do", she said flatly.

"- have stopped us from almost kissing. Or okay, if not that; even if that part was all in my head, then from almost talking about something important. When I say important, I mean important about us, of course. Every single time! Gah! I wanted to smother his perfect little Edward Cullenny Irish do-me-cuz-I'm-cute face and punch that A-roddish ruggedness off Esposito's each and every time we came close to something. Anything!"

Kate would have outright laughed at him if he wasn't actually shaking with pent up ghosts of frustrations past. Instead she too thought back to that time when Ryan would step in – more often than Esposito – and either Castle or she would have an 'it can wait' moment. He was right. It had happened too often.

In fact, she remembers that time not too long ago when she'd said the words, "It makes you think about all the things you don't want to put off anymore." What would she have said then, if Esposito hadn't walked in? She thought back that very same case when his words struck a chord with her, about opportunities that their victims had never had. How Castle didn't want that to happen with them. But before he could say more, Ryan had walked in. She'd thought that he might finally ask her out. Or that they might finally get to talking about something important.

So yeah he was right. It had happened a few times too many.

Apparently, his mind was on a tangent though. "I mean. You remember that time we were working the vampire case? You would have kissed me if it wasn't for those two having the worst timing ever."

"Huh? I didn't almost kiss you."

"Yeah-ha! You so did! Don't you remember? I commented on how you smelled like cherries. And then we slowly turned to each other, our lips, just centimeters apart. You did that sexy little thing you do, where you look into my eyes and then your gaze wanders over to my lips and God! If they hadn't walked in, _I_ would have kissed you."

Oh, she remembered alright. "Yeah. Well. I wouldn't have kissed you, Castle."

"Psh. You don't _need_ to pretend anymore, Kate. You soooo would have kissed me. You were completely besotted."

"What world were you living in?", she said, genuinely amused. "I was not 'completely besotted'", she said, imitating his deep voice.

"No? Too bad. I was. Still am.", he said sincerely, and then buried his face in her hair and breathed her in as he encircled her waist with his hands in a loose embrace. "You smell like love.", he said softly.

She smiled. God, that man. This time she did raise herself of the balls of her feet so that her lips met his in a tender, reverent kiss. They both smiled as they broke apart, and she had to step away from him to get back into any kind of coherent conversation.

She cleared her throat. "You're thinking…revenge? What are we, 5?"

"Stop demoting me. You called me 9 once. I can only have grown from there."

She rolled her eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Castle. You're completely right, of course."

He grinned.

"Revenge is totally a teenage girl thing."

_And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you slap the smug out of Richard Castle._

"Fine, whatever. Be that way.", he pouted again.

_Sigh_. "Okay, Castle. What is it that you want to do?"

His face lit up instantly. She smiled fondly as she thought about how little it takes from her for him to look like the happiest man on the block. _Happiest man-child on the block? Happiest man-child that ever was. Hmm_

"Now you're talking. Come on into my office. I took the liberty of preparing a few blueprints."

Then again… _uh oh._

* * *

_Somewhere later in the week 'cause that's how long a good Castle plan take to execute.. _

_Pananananananana Panananananana._

"Honey, I'm home!", Kevin yelled into his empty living room as he shut the front door behind him.

"Hey! You're home early.", Jenny said as she took off her oven mitts and made her way towards her husband.

He bent his head to receive a chaste kiss from his gorgeous wife, who then quickly ran off back into the kitchen. Only then did he register the dough that had been on her cheek and the sweet, chocolaty aromas wafting through the kitchen, drawing him in there step by quick step.

_Good. Chocolate. One of the many things he was craving tonight._

"Mmm. What's that smell, honey?"

"I'm baking those double chocolate chip cookies that you love.", came her prompt answer as she removed a batch from the oven.

"Oh! That's great. What's the occasion?"

"I'm blowing off steam."

_But there are better ways to do _that_._

"Err..", he said instead, as his eyes widened at the sight in front of him. There were two trays cooling on the kitchen counter, and a basket that was already full of cookies. "Honey, you know I love your cookies, but I don't think I can eat all of these by myself."

"Ah, that's okay. You can take a basket in to work with you tomorrow. Be sure to give Kate a box full. This was her idea."

_Kate?_ He'd always referred to Kate as Beckett at home, out of habit. Jenny, in turn, had also done the same. So to say that he was fairly confused was an understatement. "Kate .. I mean, Beckett told you to bake two baskets full of cookies?"

"Ugh. I don't know. I may need to bake another basket full tomorrow.", she replied distractedly as she put another tray into the oven.

"Honey?", he asked tentatively.

"What? Uh yeah. Not – she didn't tell me to bake, per se. She just told me to do something that I love doing, and that gets me relaxed, in place of .. you know."

"I really _don't_ know.", Kevin said, nonplussed.

"Sex, Kevkev.", she said with a _duh_ tone.

_WHAT?_

"WHAT?", he yelled in a high pitch. "Beckett. Kate Beckett told you to bake cookies instead of having sex with me?"

"Jeez, Kevin. I just _said_ she didn't say to bake cookies exactly. Actually, she and I got together for lunch yesterday. I was already asleep when you got home last night, so I didn't get a chance to tell you. I was surprised when she called really. It was quite out of the blue. But she said that she hadn't really seen me around much since the wedding and asked if I'd like to get together for lunch. She said that you guys would be busy around the time, following leads. I was free anyway so I thought, why not?"

_Following leads? What leads? They were doing paperwork. _

"Um. Okay? And that somehow led to talking about our _sex life_?", Kevin asked, waiting for her to continue.

"Not ours in particular."

"Ew. Hers? Cause I really don't need to know – "

"Gross Kevin! No! No, not hers. Theirs. Whatever. No."

"Then … ?"

"She was just talking about an article she'd read recently in some magazine or the other. I can't recall what name she gave me – but she said that it was some reputed health and fitness magazine. The article was about these couples who'd participated in a study on keeping the passion alive in their marriages. The statistics showed, that even in the happiest, the newest, and the mushiest of marriages, those couples that refrained from sex for one week, every two months had prospered in bed."

He wracked his brain trying to think about what was going on_. Why Beckett, Why? _"What? I don't know, Jenny..."

"Well, honey. I don't know either. But I want to give it a try. Which brings me to this.", she said, pointing at the oven.

"The cookies?", Kevin asked warily.

"Yeah. It was easy yesterday. I didn't think about it much and you weren't home anyway and I thought it'd be easy. But I'm all wound up now and I needed to relax. So I was baking cookies."

_Noooooo. Don't tell me stuff like that and then no sex. No SEX. NO SEX? Whyyyyy Beckett?_ In fact, this sounded more like something Castle would do.

"You're all wound up?", he asked hysterically. And she nodded. "And no sex?" She nodded again. "Was Castle there with her too?"

"Uhm. No? I think she said that he'd gone home to help Alexis pack or something. Oh! I almost forgot. She did tell me to tell you that grown men don't cry. I'm not sure why she asked me and didn't tell you herself."

_Oh. My. God. This is exactly something that Castle would do. _Funnily enough, this made him want to cry.

* * *

Later that night, Castle received a text message from one, frustrated, Detective Kevin Ryan. It read, "_Cockblocked by dad. SMH "._

After laughing his 'evil laugh' for a good ten minutes, until it turned into a cough, Castle began to wonder what SMH meant.

_Sidney Morning Herald? No, that didn't make sense…_

_Sexy Male Hormones?...Well, those are going to waste. Heh._

_So Much Honeymilk? .. Hmm. That has potential._

_Oooh. Send Me Honeymilk? .. Haha!_

_Shake My Hips? .. Meh._

He shrugged and sent Kate a text of his own. "One down, one to go."

* * *

**A/N: **Thoughts? : )

Oh. All the Castle bashing in the previous chapters, and the Ryan and Espo bashing. Basically all the bashing done and to come, is out of love. They know it. I know it. And I hope you know it too. xo


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: **Didn't you know? I don't own Castle! Surprising, right?

**A/N:** Wow! This story has more alerts than any of my other ones. Thank you all who are reading. Thanks especially to everyone reviewing. I can't properly explain how encouraging it is to see that you all are still enjoying this. By the way, SMH is internet speak for Shaking My Head. You'll find examples if you search on google.

P.S. Last part has Castle's evil genius-ness in italics.

* * *

Chapter 7: Cockblocking: The Revengeance – Part deuce

_Several days earlier in Castle's study_

When Kate had followed Castle into his study at the loft, she had been surprised. That was surprising in itself because over the years she had come to learn that Richard Castle was full of surprises. And yet, there she stood, peering into the A four sized papers now adorned with Castle's tidy scrawl all over it, as he looked over her shoulder.

"Castle, what is this?", she asked him, confused at some of the words; definitely confused at the appearance of her name and Jenny's.

"Blueprints, my dear detective."

He was standing at her back. Actually, he was hugging her from behind, snuggly. Like her very own cuddly Koala. So when she turned her head, she was within inches from his face with his chin on her shoulder, his face now turned to face her. Even at this awkward angle, he smiled and stole a kiss from the corner of her mouth.

"You were hardly gone for a couple of minutes", she said. "How did you come up with and write this down so fast?", she asked, genuinely impressed and curious.

"One of my many talents. And erm… It was more than a couple of minutes.", he said, with his eyebrows furrowed. But then he smirked. "Were you so engaged in your thoughts about a certain devilishly handsome mystery writer that you lost all concept of time? How adorable!"

_How did he do that? _"I was not – ", she spluttered. _No, seriously, how did he do that?_ "Oh, shut up."

He chuckled. "_Anyway_, first we tackle Ryan. Obviously that's going to be easier.", he said, pointing out to the first 'blueprint'. "That's mainly going to be you. I could be there too, but that would turn things awkward and they'd all be too suspicious for us to pull it off. Think you can do it, my darling devious detective?"

Kate raised her eyebrow.

"What? I like alliterations.", he justified.

"Uhuh. Yeah, I guess. I still don't like this very much."

"Oh, what's a week? Well, he'll think it's for one week every two months. But if it's going to make you feel better, then you can tell Jenny at the end of this month that they discovered that this study was a sham."

"I guess."

"Come on, Kate. Need I remind you again about all the times that those two pulled a fast one on us? More often me than you. Actually, a few times, you were the brains behind their operations. Hmpf."

_Ah. The curse of the missing museum mummy. Damn, that was easy. Also damn! Alliteration just snuck in there._

"Uhuh.", Castle said, as if reading her mind. "So you see, you owe me. Now you're on _my_ team. And with our powers combined, those two don't stand a chance. Think about all those times they've teased us about our then non-existent relationship. It used to irk us so. Mostly you. Okay, just you. I was fine with it. More than fine with it.", he said till he caught her narrowed eyes. "It's their loss really. I mean, let's face it, having you on any side gives said side an automatic advantage. You're like the perfect little schemer, _and_ the perfect person to pull it off on the field too! Brains, and skill. And you're extremely hot. And gorgeous. Did I mention hot? And tall."

She smiled fondly. "Alright Castle. You can stop now. I already told you I'd help. We're partners.", she said as she nudged his head with hers.

"Yeah.", he breathed out and placed a kiss on the side of her neck.

"Focus."

"You make it hard."

"I know, Castle. But this first, that later.", she said, poking his side and laughed so hard that he had to lift his head of her shaking shoulders.

"Oh my! Katherine Beckett, I never.", he said in mock indignation, before he burst out laughing too. A couple of minutes later, he mumbled to himself, "And she thinks I can focus now."

He did, with some effort, manage to focus and explain both plans to Kate. He was right. Ryan's takedown was going to be a cinch to pull off. Esposito's wasn't going to be nearly as easy. For one thing, they had to keep Lanie out of it because she'd see right through any scheme. And for another, Javi wasn't going to be too easy to fool either. But Kate had to hand it to the man, his plan did seem to have its merits.

He rubbed his hands together and declared, "It's on!"

* * *

_A few days later._

"Cockblocking: The Revengeance – Revenge on Ryan went off without a hitch!", Castle said gleefully when he and Kate were on their lunch break at Remy's. All day Ryan had been giving both of them the stink-eye. Esposito had noticed but didn't call him out on it. Poor Ryan didn't say anything, probably out of embarrassment. That part of the plan had also worked out splendidly, as Castle happily pointed out. This way, Esposito didn't know he was next on their hit-list.

"Do you have to call it that?"

"Yes! Evil genius plans _need_ excellent titles."

Kate rolled her eyes as she sipped at her strawberry shake. Then she looked up at him through her lashes, and moved her tongue deliberately slowly, seductively over her lips. She let out a quick low moan as she drew it back in and saw from his widening eyes that it had the desired effects. She smirked inwardly. She loved doing that to him – seeing the abrupt change from playful boyish Castle to turned on, definitely grown up, completely in-her-power Castle.

He snapped himself out of it and glared at her. "You're doing that on purpose!"

"Are you complaining, Rick?", she asked, deliberately rolling the R when she said his name.

He cleared his throat and gulped. "Not at all. Not complaining."

She jumped slightly when she felt his socked foot running up on her calf. _How'd he even take his shoe off so fast and soundlessly?_

"Something wrong?", he asked innocently.

"Not at all.", she echoed and smiled. If she could dish it out, she could take it. Or so she told herself. "What about Javi's thing?", she asked distractedly.

He chuckled. "I don't know. You should ask Lanie about Javi's thing."

"Huh?... Oh ew! Castle!", she hissed and swatted his arm.

"It has a name. Not Javi's thing. Or well, I don't know about that….", he muttered.

"Castle", she snapped again.

"What? I meant the plan. It has a name. It's called 'Cockblocking: The Revengeance – Harpooning Javi'."

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever the name. It's too big to – ", she stopped as he smirked again. "Don't even! Ugh. Castle!"

"Okay. Okay. Seriously now. It's going fine. I already got my guy to make that fake medical website – and don't worry. He'll take it down the minute our plan is over."

"Uhuh. Okay. Don't screw it up, Castle. He'll catch on if you hesitate in the slightest."

He grinned, noting to himself that she was as into this as he was. "Don't worry, detective. I'm Martha Rodgers son. I've got this.", he said with a wink.

* * *

Earlier that day, when they made it to the crime scene, after their well established routine, Castle asked Esposito to walk through it with him again. He said that he had stayed up all night writing Nikki, and he missed a few things that Espo had said earlier. Esposito had simply smirked at him, but eventually led him back for a quick explanation.

Castle took the opportunity to hand him gloves as he pointed at some random object and asked Espo to see if there was residue on it. There wasn't, and Castle knew that, but he insisted and so Esposito had to put on the gloves. Gloves, the insides of which had a little bit of itching powder, courtesy of Castle.

As the day went on, Castle had noticed that Esposito had been scratching at his palm more and more. But he didn't pay too much attention to it. So it must have been the correct amount. Not too much, not too less.

The whole plan had entered his mind because Esposito had developed a sore throat. He was getting better though, so Castle didn't feel too guilty about it. He also knew that between being sick and all the cases, Esposito hadn't seen Lanie outside of work. A fact that Kate had gotten a confirmation for, but they were going to meet soon. And so they had to act fast.

It was nearing the end of the day. The perfect time for Castle to pull off the rest of his plan. It was a simple matter of selling ice to an Eskimo. If anyone could do it, Castle could. He walked up to a tired looking Esposito when Kate sent Ryan to the tech department – planned of course, to separate them – to collect some video he'd have to screen.

"Hey, Espo. You okay, man?", Castle asked, looking appropriately concerned.

"Yeah..", Esposito drawled. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know, dude. You're eyes are a little bit puffy and you look really tired. Slightly pale too."

"I do?", he asked. "Well, I guess I'm tired bro. I did have laryngitis last week. It's getting better now. Almost gone."

"I don't know, bro. You still look sick to me. Do you have a fever? Are you itchy anywhere?"

"I don't -. Wait. I guess. I mean, I don't have a fever. But my hands have been itching all day."

_That's right, pal._

Castle gasped.

Kate rolled her eyes at the dramatics as she watched from afar, looking down into her paper, as if she wasn't trying to listen to the conversation.

"_No WAY!_", Castle said as he brought his hand to his chest.

"What? What?", Espo asked, now looking concerned himself.

"Dude.", Castle said as he shook his head.

"Castle. Cut the crap. Tell me what you're on about or go back to your lady love there.", he said loudly.

It took all of Kate's will power not to chuck her stapler at Esposito.

"Maybe I should. But, you're my friend. So I'm not going to leave your side.", Castle said solemnly.

"Castle? What are you even talking about?"

_Ding ding ding. Right question. I have an in._

"You have Seanorrhoea!"

Esposito snorted. "I have what?"

"Seanorrhoea. Don't laugh. Here, take a look.", Castle said as he pulled out his cell phone and opened his browser to a medical site. A fake medical site, but Esposito didn't know that. He looked around as if to make sure no one else was listening and then read out to Esposito, "The CDC* recently found evidence of a new disease doing the rounds in the States. Several cases have been cited from hospitals across Manhattan, New York. Sources say that they've discovered it to be a new combined strain of treponema and gonococcus – the causative organisms of Syphilis and Gonorrhoea. Luckily the mutations in the combination do not cause the same degree of illness as their individual counterparts. The disease is self limiting., without any lasting complications", he watched as Esposito's face paled.

"The incubation period ranges from two days to a week. Mode of spread is by sexual contact or direct contact with infected blood – like most STDs. The earliest symptom is hoarseness of voice and dryness of the throat, followed by itching of some body parts, most often the hands and maybe feet; puffiness around the eyes. The disease, as previously mentioned, is self limiting for a period of one to two weeks during which it is recommended patients abstain from sexual intercourse. The general public has taken to calling it Seanorrhoea for its effects on the patient's voice rendering it like Sean Connery's"

"Dude, you can't be serious! I haven't – it's been a while – it's not possible."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. What the hell kind of question is that.", he asked, agitatedly.

Castle looked like he was thinking for a minute. In fact he knew exactly what to say, but he smiled inside that Esposito looked like he was buying it. "Oh my God! You remember last week when you'd scraped your knuckles from tackling and dealing with Joe?"

"What? Yeah, I remember. So?"

_Hmm. Not so quick at making connections then._

"I think he had the same symptoms. And his nose was bleeding. It's possible that you contracted it from him."

"Oh God!", Esposito paled even further. "Castle, bro, what do I do?"

_BAM said the lady!_

"Look, don't worry, man. They said the disease is self limiting. You just can't have sex for a week or two."

"What? Oh God! I was supposed to meet Lanie tomorrow night. I have to tell her."

"NO! You can't do that!", Castle yelled, and then whispered the same thing again.

"Why? She's a doctor."

"Yeah. That's the problem."

"I don't get it. How so?"

"She'll probably know all about Seanorrhoea. And what's she going to think, dude? It's an STD! You guys aren't exclusive, last I heard."

"Well – yeah, but I'm not sleeping with anyone else."

"_She_ doesn't know that. Plus, do you really want her to have those doubts in her head? Everything's been going so well for you guys."

"No. Yeah. You're right. Oh my God. I can't tell her. Castle, you can't tell anyone."

"I won't."

"Not even Beckett, man. She's her best friend."

"Javi, Kate is like a sister to you. But okay, I won't even tell her. You just have to stay strong, bro. Wine and dine Lanie instead. And then cut it before anything else happens. I'm sure you'll come up with something."

"This is going to be torture."

_He he he!_

"I can imagine."

"It's not even my fault."

_It's all your fault. All the cockblocking over the years. Look where it's gotten you._

Castle nodded.

"She's going to be so pissed.", he said, as he paled.

_Mwahahahaha!_

"I don't doubt that.", he said, trying valiantly to hide his smirk.

"But I can do this.", he said confidently. "It's already been a week. So maybe about a week longer?", he asked, not so confidently.

"Yeah. I guess. Maybe a week and a half just to be on the safe side?", Castle suggested, with a sympathetic tone.

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right.", Javi said, looking into the distance behind Castle's shoulder.

_More Mwahahaha!_

Castle stood up and gave Esposito a small smile and patted his shoulders. "Power to you, dude."

"Thanks", he replied, still looking lost.

He made his way back to his chair besides Kate, smiling all the way there. They both looked at him, Kate being discreet about it. "You know we're dead when Lanie finds out, right?" Castle crossed his legs as he thought about Lanie's threat again.

Esposito was jumpy, and avoiding Ryan's suspicious eyes when he came back from tech.

"But you'll save us.", he said with a huge grin. "Revenge _is_ sweet." Kate couldn't help but grin too.

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, so first of all. I was feeling terrible for Javi and still laughing. Secondly, CDC* : Center of Devious Castleness. Thirdly, IN YO FACES, COCKBLOCKERS! .. With love. ;)

Oh and just to clarify, Seanorrhoea doesn't exist. :/


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: **Castle is not mine. He's Beckett's!

**A/N:** Thank you for reading and reviewing. This little fic became more popular than I thought it would. Much love to you all. I'm glad it makes you laugh.

Now, I have a major entrance exam coming up on the 11th, so I won't be posting updates regularly. Anyway, roughly, I plan on two more chapters after this unless they get too long and I have to separate them, 'cause I don't want this story to drag on and become boring.

I may, in the future, post actual plot based stories/a big story in the Open Gates universe. But I can't say for sure right now. Until then, Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 8:

Jenny was wired and baking enough cookies, cakes and other sweet delicacies to give everyone 32 cavities. Each.

Ryan was frustrated.

Esposito was antsy.

Lanie was incensed. Irate. Angry as all hell.

Out of all of the distraught, frustrated lot of people, Lanie was the one that cracked first. She called Esposito to the morgue on one late evening, under the guise of autopsy findings. Of course he fell for it, even though the printed report she had handed them earlier was pretty thorough. It wasn't too uncommon for them to request for re-examinations, so of course, he fell for it.

He should have seen that something was up when Lanie was fuming and muttering under her breath. But Javier was too busy being proud of the fact that he had kept anything from happening for so long and also busy thinking, there's just one day left. _One silly little, stupid day left. Just twenty four hours and the Seanorrhoea will be gone!_

"Hey chica, what's up?", Javi asked, completely oblivious to the death stare in his blissful haze.

"That's what I'd like to know, Javier Esposito."

_Pulling out the full name. Never a good sign._ "You're the one that called me here, Lanie. I thought you found something on the vic?"

"Do you _see_ your vic here, Esposito?", she snapped. "We need to talk."

_My four least favorite words._

"What do you want to talk about?", he asked warily.

"Sex."

He blushed. "Well, there are books for that…"

She narrowed her eyes, but asked in a gentler tone, "What's going on, Javi? I thought we had a good thing going."

"We did! I mean, we do."

"Then I don't get it. Tell me what's going on. I know we didn't say that this was exclusive. And we were keeping things casual –"

"There's no one else.", Javi said, interrupting her, and looking at the floor to avoid her gaze.

She gave him a small smile that he couldn't see. "There's no one else for me either."

"I – really? I was hoping, and I thought so, but I didn't –"

"Yes, really. I know we said this would be a 'friends with benefits' kind of thing, but you've always been more than a friend to me, Javi. Those feelings don't just go away."

"I don't want them to go away.", he said sincerely.

"Now I'm even more confused. Why is it then, when we're pretty much on the same page, that you're avoiding me?"

_Oh no._

"I'm not avoiding you. I took you out on a date a few times whenever we got off work early."

"That's not what I mean, and you know it.", she snapped again.

"Okay, okay.", he said with his hands raised. He let out a long sigh and said, "It's a long story."

"I have time.", she said flatly.

_Still don't know why people say that. 'It's a long story' NEVER works_.

"Two weeks ago, I scraped my knuckles while tackling this perp, Joe. He was bleeding from his nose. If you remember, I got what I thought was laryngitis not long after that."

She nodded.

He continued, "So, I guess I must've made contact and long story short, next thing I know, I've got Seanorrhoea."

She snorted. "You've got what now?"

"Seanorrhoea. But there's only just one day left for the things to leave my system, so we're good. I'm sorry, chica."

"Javi, what in the name of all things twisted, is Seanorrhoea?"

"Pfft. Seanorrhoea, you know! That new disease that's going around. They say it's like an STD so you can either get it through sexual contact or direct blood contact."

"What? Who's 'they'?", she asked confused.

"Look, Castle showed me this medical website. It had all this stuff from the CDC. They said it's caused by a combined mutant form of Trepidation …-"

"Trepidation?", she looked at him incredulously.

"Yeah, keep up Lanie. It's the organism that causes Syphilis."

"Treponema?"

"That's what I said."

_Jeez, how do I tell the story if she keeps interrupting me?_

She rolled her eyes.

" – anyway, Treponema and gonococcus."

"What? There's no such thing."

"There's no such thing as Treponema and gonococcus?", he asked.

"There's no such thing as a combined mutant form of Treponema and gonococcus. You can get either individually; you could be unlucky and/or stupid enough to get both at the simultaneously. But there is _no_ combined mutant form."

"Nah, chica. Why would Castle – ", his eyes widened. He would have been angry, if he wasn't so shocked. "Jesus! That good for nothing, shadow from Neverland! – ", this time he _was_ angry.

At first Lanie laughed. Then, "I can't believe you fell for it, Javi. Here I was, thinking that something's gone terribly wrong between the two of us and you were hiding from me because you were scared of … ", she trailed off. "And what the hell! You believed in 'Seanorrhoea'? That has Castle written all over it.", she said, getting miffed.

"I wasn't hiding.", he said, feeling indignant.

She crossed her arms and glared at him.

"Okay. I was hiding. It's just that, if I told you, I thought you'd think I was sleeping around. I didn't want to think that you'd think I'd do that. I mean, I think you're not stupid. WAIT! No! I mean, I don't think you're stupid. I mean. I _KNOW_ you're not stupid. You're one of the smartest people I know. But I didn't want to risk you thinking that -", he trailed off.

_Ugh. Confusing._

"Uhuh. This thought was planted by Castle too wasn't it?"

He thought back for a moment and then nodded.

"Javi, I can't believe you.", she said as she punched his arm.

"Hey! He had this legit looking medical site on his phone. I can show you. And it had all the symptoms I was showing. The hoarse voice that makes you sound like Sean Connery – "

Lanie snorted and facepalmed herself, but he ignored it.

"- the puffiness around the eyes. The itching hands and feet. Well, only my hands were itching, but that's close."

"Ah. Itching powder. Classic, Castle.", she shook her head.

"Here's the site –", he said as he pulled up a bookmark, but then stopped. "Oh wait. It says 'error, this site cannot be found'"

"That's probably because it's not a real site; probably also Castle's doing."

"I can't believe he did this. He must be getting back at me for the whole Gates fiasco.", he muttered.

"Gates fiasco?", Lanie asked since she was out of the loop.

_Now this _is_ a long story_.

Esposito explained the whole episode to her, with as many details as possible. By the end of it, Lanie was clutching her sides and was in tears. "Calm down, chica! Save all that energy", he said coyly.

"Hahaha- I can't. Male menopause? Really? No wonder he did this. But I can't believe that Kate went along with it."

"What?", he asked, surprised. "Nah. Beckett wouldn't do that."

"Psh. Of course she would. They're together now. They're a team. It's them against you and Ryan. Only, I suppose that Jenny and I got caught in the middle of it."

"You think he tricked Ryan too?"

"Something like that. We'll call him and find out. We have to get them back."

"Yeah.", he said uncertainly. Then he thought back to the one and a half week of anguish he just went through for nothing. He huffed. "Yeah. Yeah, we gotta get 'em back. I'm calling Kev."

* * *

It had been a torturous week for the Ryans as well. A torturous week, where poor Kevin couldn't think straight, because his mind was too preoccupied with – well, with the things he couldn't do. After the week was up, though, his brain seemed to have rebooted. Now he was thinking straight. He was thinking logically. And he was doing what he did best. Research.

He sat on the internet for hours, using different search engines, looking through tons of health magazines and – _Zip. Zilch. Nada. I knew it!_

He told Jenny about his discovery and she was exasperated when she found out. But she also found the story that led to this whole weird revenge thing hilarious. And she saw the silver lining, in that when their week had been up, they had been explosive. Not that she ever wanted to do it again. So she let it go. But Kevin did not.

This was the reason that Kevin, Javi and Lanie were sitting at Remy's one night, enjoying their burgers and shakes. When he'd gotten the call from Javi, he couldn't believe that he had fallen for Castle's hare brained scheme. Then again, so had Jenny. He didn't say anything. Both of them were used to teasing each other, but they just couldn't do it in this scenario. They were both too embarrassed. That did stop Lanie from teasing both of them though.

After enjoying their meal and deciding on potential plans to mess with Castle and Beckett, Lanie finally had an epiphany. "I know just what to do.", she said as she rubbed her hands together and proceeded to tell them her plan. "Being in love will never have been freakier for them.", she said with a large grin. They all agreed and aptly labeled their plan, 'Operation Crazy Caskett'.

* * *

**A/N:** Sorry if this was small and not as funny. It was more of a filler for what's to come – which I only vaguely have an idea about. Meh. I've been doing alright so far.. Thoughts? Ideas? Operation Crazy Caskett, is obviously, going to drive Caskett crazy. Maybe literally. ;)


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer:** Man, this is such a hassle, I don't own Castle

**A/N:** Got so many ideas from my friend and fellow Castle obsessee, KidChaos. Thank you!

Thank you all for sticking with this for so long. This was meant to be a long chapter. But like the "Cockblocking: The Revengeance" chapters, this is a two (maybe three) parter as well.

Without further ado, I present to you:

* * *

Chapter 9: Operation Crazy Caskett – Part Kate.

_31__st__ July._

_10 am at the precinct, a couple of weeks after Lanie hatched her plans._

Castle had been up till the wee hours last night because he had been writing up a storm. _No pun intended_. Kate knew this, and so she didn't worry about why he hadn't been in yet despite the late hour of the morning. She didn't worry, but she was irritable. Her boys had been nice enough to supply her with a steady flow of caffeine. She thought, fleetingly, that he might've sent them messages to do as much.

He was sweet like that. And her boys were sweet like that. She was glad, because even after so many years of having that beautiful piece of machinery in the break room of the 12th precinct's homicide division, Kate Beckett still hadn't mastered the art of getting it to work. That damn thing was her nemesis. Did it not understand how desperately she needed caffeine? It's her soul food. It's the nectar of life. She needed it to function. _Wow!_ She needed Castle to come in already.

She caught a glimpse of Esposito walking by the restrooms earlier, looking harried. She wouldn't have thought much of it either, if she hadn't seen him now, decidedly in different clothes than he was wearing then.

"Hey Espo, did you stain your shirt?", she asked him.

"Huh?"

"You were wearing a different shirt earlier. It was blue. Now it's green."

"Umm. No….? I've been in this shirt all day. You must've made a mistake."

_But I was so sure…_

"Yeah, I guess I did.", she said with her brows furrowed.

"Anyway, I have to go trace this guy's financials.", he said and ran off.

Before she had more time to think it over, she got a call. "Beckett."

"_Hey girl, it's me. You coming down to the morgue? I've got more on the vic."_

"Sure, Lanie, I'll be right there.", she said as she hung up and left for the morgue.

* * *

Once she got to the morgue, Kate just stood there, mouth gaping and eyes wide because of what Lanie had just said. Sang. What her best friend had just – sung? – at her.

"Hey there, detective. And a good morning to you.

Is everything okay? You look a little blue.", she sang.

After she shook her head, she asked Lanie, "Lanie! What the hell?"

"What? I just asked if you're okay. You look a little off.", Lanie said in a normal voice.

"I'm… fine?"

Lanie turned her back to Kate while wearing gloves and sang,

"Are you sure, my dear Kate. You look a little sick.

And where is your writer boy? The one and only, Rick?"

Kate screwed her eyes shut and then opened them. "Wh – what?"

"I said, where's writer boy? What is _up_ with you today?", Lanie asked, looking concerned.

"I – did you call him Rick?"

Lanie snorted. "When have I ever called Castle 'Rick'? That's just weird."

"Uhm. Okay. Could you check if I have a temperature, Lanie?"

Lanie placed the back of her palm on Kate's forehead. "Nope, you're okay. Well, you don't have a fever in any case."

_Maybe I've had too much coffee. Even though there's no such thing._

"Okay. Nevermind. So … the autopsy results?", she asked.

"Okay, then.", Lanie said and proceeded to explain her findings.

Just as Kate turned to leave, she thought that she might need to go home. She never liked to leave a case mid-way. She pointed to an area behind, Lanie. "Lanie, did you see that?"

"See what, honey?", Lanie asked as she turned to see the slightly open closet.

"The – you know what? Nevermind. I'm just going back to work. Thanks Lanie."

"Are you sure you're okay, Kate?"

"No."

No, she wasn't sure she was okay. She wasn't sure she was sane. They said love drives you crazy. But … _There can't have been a rabbit hopping around in the morgue._ _Morgues are for dead people. Not happily bouncing rabbits._

After she left, Lanie turned to the autopsy room's supply closet. "Good job, Javi. Good thing the carrots worked."

"Yeah. Operation Crazy Caskett is on." He snickered.

Lanie laughed at how stupid that looked while he was hugging the bunny close to his chest and running his hand lovingly over its fur while cooing it.

* * *

_11 am back in the bullpen_

Castle had called just as she entered the bullpen. He sounded a bit off on the phone, but she chalked it down to distraction because he told her that he'd be coming in a little late today. He was still writing. Kate wanted him to be there with her. Keep her grounded. Tell her that there were no rabbits in the morgue and that her best friend wasn't singing. _What's next?_ She wondered inanely before shaking her head and trying to concentrate on the murder board again.

A few minutes later, she saw Ryan walk past her. She could have sworn that he was wearing a different shirt too. In fact, he was wearing a t-shirt. A green t-shirt with a pot of gold and a leprechaun wishing everyone a happy 's day. She was going to follow him, but he took the stair well, just as Esposito came running towards her.

"Hey boss! You have a minute? I'll run through the financials quickly.", he said, and then asked, "Where's Ryan?"

"I just saw hi – ", she trailed off as she saw Ryan exiting the elevator, wearing a black shirt that was decidedly not a 's day t-shirt. "There he is.", she said.

"Ah! Great. Hey man! Go to the conference room?"

"Sure.", Ryan said as he changed directions and kept walking.

Kate followed.

They closed the door and Espo placed all the papers on the table for Kate to look at. After a few minutes, she asked, "You going to give me a summary?"

To her horror, like Lanie earlier, they started singing. And snapping their fingers. Like a freakin' musical. She was definitely sick.

They snapped their fingers in sync and … "Ba-bum - ba-bum"

"Hey boss, take a look at this.

Bob's financials are definitely amiss.", Espo sang.

"Hey boss, look at what we found.

This here's a very large amount.", Ryan sang.

More ba-bum, ba-bums.

"See here, all this highlighted part,

He lied to us. The stupid old fart.", Espo sang.

"Hey Espo, this reminds me too,

Did you check his alibi at the zoo?", Ryan sang.

"Nah, I'm headed there, you want to come along?", Espo ended on a high note.

"Sure bro, let's get this Bobby Long.", Ryan concluded.

Esposito turned to Kate and asked her, "See you later boss. You need anything else?"

Kate just sat in shock, mutely listening to everything. She just shook her head in answer.

* * *

_Noon. Another cup of coffee. Probably a bad idea but – she needed it._

She headed back to her desk, and leaned on it, wondering if love is worth the insanity that she seemed to be suffering. In fact, she wanted Rick to be with her, but she couldn't drag him away from his work, could she? She'd wait a little while longer before giving in a calling him. He can write for some time now, and then write again later. She'd promise inspiration, but she really needed him today.

She tried to shut everything else out of her mind and set her eyes again on the white board in front of her, trying to make connections between their prime suspect, Robert Long and the vic. Rabbits, singing, magically changing wardrobes would have to wait.

After nearly an hour, she found that some of Bob Long's statements hadn't made sense. He had denied any connection to the vic, Sandra Whedon and yet, she had found a statement by one of her friends claiming that Whedon had mentioned a 'Bob' she had befriended on twitter who had sounded shady. Sandra thought it was shameless flirting, but her best friend found it creepy. Kate would have to get tech to confirm the ips. Then she could break Bob, shut this case and go home to sleep it off. Maybe even take tomorrow off, she thought as her phone started ringing.

"Beckett.", she answered.

"Hey girl! It's Lanie again."

"Oh. Hey Lanie, what's up?"

"I found some interesting stuff on your vic. Want to come down real quick? I'll show it to you and hand in the report."

"Uhm. I'll see if the guys can come pick it up? They should be getting back anytime now."

"Jeez. It's past lunch time and I haven't had lunch yet. I bet you haven't either. I thought that you might like to take a break, hang with your best friend, what with writer boy always taking up your time these days."

_Sigh_. "Okay Lanie. I'll be there in a few."

"I'll be waiting."

She hung up and started for the elevator, after quickly having called tech to take another look at Sandra's computer for what she had suspected. The elevator pinged just as she got there and Javi was about to get off it. _Blue. It's blue this time._ As soon as he caught her eye, he got back inside and waited for her to join too.

As if that wasn't bad enough, there was a white dove on his shoulder. Birds freaked her out. She moved to one side of the elevator as soon as the doors started sliding shut and eyed the bird warily, wondering if it was another figment of her imagination or it there really was a white dove, with a little cardboard heart on strings around its neck no less, or if it was real. He was absolutely ignoring it. She would too. "Javi, what color shirt are you wearing?"

Espo smirked. "Blue. Why? What does it look like to you? You going colorblind on me, Beckett?"

"No. Just making sure.", she said, with nothing resembling surety in her voice.

"Anyway, Beckett. There's something I need to tell you, and I need to say it quickly, so don't interrupt.", he fired off so quickly that his lips looked blurred. "Nuh-uh!", he said as she opened her mouth. "Look. I'm not your Esposito. I mean, I am. But I'm not from here. Actually, I am. But I'm not from this time."

_Headache. I'm definitely, definitely getting a headache. Maybe I got a concussion and this is one big, horribly terrifying nightmare?_

Esposito continued, "I can prove it, after you get off this elevator, you can call me. Not me, me. Or, better yet, call Ryan. I was with him and Lanie at the morgue. If I remember correctly, after she calls you for lunch, she then calls me to see where I am. Ryan and I had just been getting back to the precinct, so she suggested that we all have lunch together. So we'll be at the morgue, waiting on you to show up. Oh, and Castle's going to show up soon. I don't know how I landed up here, or why I'm here. Maybe it's just to tell you not to give up on Castle. And to be more careful at the precinct. You guys have something real. And now I've got to go. Sorry chica. Good luck! I've got to go to the men's room and hope I can get back to my time again."

_Not her Esposito. Not from this time. Not to give up on Castle. Wait...Men's room?_

As soon as the elevator doors were wide enough for him to pass through, the dove flew off, and he sprinted to the stairwell. Kate stared blankly yet again, wondering why the universe was playing this sick, twisted joke on her. Hearing that Castle was going to show up soon, oddly enough, had relaxed her so much that she actually was able to walk out of the elevator before the doors started closing again.

She made it to the morgue and sure enough, there they were. Esposito – in a green shirt, Ryan and Lanie were standing around the body. She had forgotten to call Ryan, as 'future Esposito' had suggested. _Maybe living with Castle does this to you. Is this how he comes up with all his crazy theories? He actually lives them? Apparently it's contagious._ After a quick round of greetings, she looked up at the ceiling when she caught something red moving in her field of vision.

Red heart balloons -about ten to fifteen of them were dangling from the ceiling. _Okay. Enough._ "Guys, do you see those?"

"See what?", they chorused and followed her gaze to the ceiling.

"The balloons. The red heart shaped balloons."

"Uhm…", Ryan said as they all looked at her as though she were insane – _Maybe I am – _and then at each other.

"Wow Beckett!", Esposito snorted. "Are you so in love with Castle that you're seeing things now?"

_Seeing things, hearing things. Love is freakin' Looney-land. What's next? Singing deer? Chirping birds completing her paperwork for her? Mice sewing clothes for vice?_

"I'm not seeing things. They're right there!"

Ryan took his cell out, pointed it to the ceiling and clicked a picture, then made a show of getting Lanie and Esposito to check it before handing it to Kate. There was the ceiling. The same ceiling. Minus all the balloons.

She shook her head and handed the cell back to Ryan.

"Are you trying to play a prank on us, Beckett?", Lanie asked her. "You should know better than to try that with all of us at the same time."

"Yeah. Right.", she said distractedly and proceeded to ask about the body.

They all decided to go to Remy's for lunch. As they exited the building, they ran into Castle. _More points for future Esposito_. Maybe Castle would finally help explain things. _Time travel, alternate dimensions... that's his thing. Not mine. Why is this happening to me? Things were normal before Castle came along._

"Hey!", Castle said as he approached them and then turned to Kate, "I've been looking all over the place for you."

"Oh? Lanie had some stuff she needed to show us, so we were at the morgue."

"I need to talk to you.", he said, looking utterly worried. In fact, as she looked at him he definitely looked more disheveled than his usual self. It looked like he was having the same kind of day that she was. But, that can't be right?

"Have you had lunch, writer boy?", Lanie asked.

"Uhm. No, not yet. But I need to –"

"Later. You can steal your Kate and keep her all to yourself later. Right now, we're getting lunch. You can join us if you'd like."

_His Kate. _She liked the sound of that, though she had never been one to _belong_ to anybody. No one but her mother and maybe her dad. Now she was his Kate.

She gave him a smile and a shrug. He smiled back but took her hand and was clutching it like his life depended on it. She was glad. Finally, she felt better. It felt real. She squeezed his hand in return – whether reassuring him or for herself, she wasn't sure.

* * *

After their very, very late lunch, everyone went back to working. Everyone but for Castle and Beckett. Kate dragged him to the stairwell, where they'd finally get to be alone for a bit.

They both looked at each other, with almost identical looks, took a deep breath and simultaneously blurted out, "I think I'm going crazy."

"Wait. What?", Castle asked.

"You first.", Kate said.

_So she wasn't alone in the land of the insane after all?_

* * *

**A/N:** What a doozy to write! And I've yet to get to Castle's part – which, btw, cannot possibly be more elaborate. What do ya'll think? How they pulled off some of the stuff they did, I might explain in the next chapter. And to answer your unasked questions: Yes, I am scared of myself.


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Castle. *le sigh*

**A/N:** I know I say it a lot, but it's because I mean it a lot. Thank you.

P.S.: Lanie's thoughts in italics in some places. You'll know when you read it.

* * *

Chapter 10: Operation Crazy Caskett : Part Castle.

_31__st__ July_

_10:30 am, at the loft_.

Richard Castle let out a long yawn as he scratched his stubble laden jaw. His hair was mussed up, his clothes were wrinkled, but he was a happy man. Last night he was on a writing spree. He had feared a bit, that getting together with Kate would somehow reduce her…_muse-y-ness. That ought to be a word. I ought to have some coffee._ He needn't have worried. She was, by far, the most inspiring person – the one person, other than Alexis, who never ceased to amaze him.

He hated leaving her at the precinct. Though it wasn't his job, it had become something like it. And days like this actually did help him with his actual job. As he made his way to the en suite bathroom trying to decide which coffee to bring Kate later, he passed his hand over his hair all the way to the nape of his neck, till he felt a bump. _What the - ?_

He tried to twist and turn, and looked a little bit like a puppy chasing his tail, as he tried to get a look at the reflection in the mirror. It seemed to be exactly in the middle so that he couldn't turn enough to get a good look himself.

Before taking a shower, he decided to ask Alexis take a look at it for him, just in case she was planning on leaving soon for work. Lanie and Alexis had worked it out so that Alexis would come in during her morning free period, and then later again if her evenings were free.

"Good morning, Pumpkin.", he said as she was steadily making her way through breakfast.

She looked up from the book lying next to her plate – _of course – _and replied, "Good morning, dad. Did you get a lot of writing done last night? You were totally immersed in it when I came into the study to say good night."

"Ah! Yeah, I did get a lot done. Sorry about that, honey. I didn't even realize when you came in there."

"Oh, it's fine. You know I'm used to it.", she replied.

"Right. Hey, pumpkin, can you just take a look at something for me?"

"You need me to proof read? Sure, I can do it after I get back.", she said, although she knew that wasn't what he'd meant.

"No, not that, thank you though. There's just – there's a bump on the back of my neck, and I can't see it for myself."

"Let me see.", she said as she hopped off the stool and walked over to her father. Just as he finished turning around, she let out a gasp. She was Martha's granddaughter after all. "Ew! Dad, what is that?"

He turned around to face her, eyes wide, looking concerned. "What? What? Is it an insect?", he said, as he started jumping up and down.

Alexis rolled her eyes. "No, would you stand still."

"You know bugs freak me out."

"It's not an insect. It's something – I don't know what it is, but there's green stuff coming out of it."

"Ewwww!", Castle cried out while making a disgusted face.

"I think you should show it to a doctor, dad."

"Yeah. I'll just go take a shower and – "

"NO!", Alexis shouted and then turned pink. "Sorry. I mean, you probably shouldn't get it wet, right? I was just on my way to the morgue. You should come with me, show it to Lanie.", she said hurriedly.

"Yeah, I guess it's not a good idea to let it get wet. Just in case. Okay, I'll come with you. You think Lanie will know what it is?"

"I think so. And if she doesn't, she could recommend a good doctor to show it to."

"Huh. I suppose. Okay, just give me a minute to throw some clothes on.", he said as he walked towards the bedroom.

As soon as he was gone, Alexis texted Lanie.

* * *

_11 am, at the morgue._

Castle senior and junior came in just a few minutes after Kate had left. That was a close call. Lanie listened patiently as Castle went on about the lump and how he first thought it was an insect. Alexis stood quietly at the back, trying to hold her laughter. She gave her a surreptitious glance, conveying to her to hold it together for a bit longer, or Alexis would give them away. She was, in fact, a little surprised that Alexis had agreed to do it. It seemed that Alexis wanted to get him back for this year's April Fools pranks anyway.

"So, what's up doc?", he asked Lanie in a Bugs bunny voice. Now she knew why Kate rolled her eyes so much.

_Time to put on a show._ "I'm not sure, Castle. I've seen my fair share of gross lesions over the years, but I've never seen anything like this before.", she said in a serious, and curious tone. "I think – Oh my God!"

"What?", Castle said, panic evident in his voice.

"It's peeling off!"

"Ew! Gross!", Castle said.

"And there's something under – ", she said as she used her gloved hands to peel off the 'lump'. "Stay still Castle, I'm going to take it off. Tell me if it hurts."

"Okay, go ahead. I can only feel a little tug."

_I know, Writer-boy. Alexis, girl, you've done a great job with the makeup. _

"Okay, it's come off, and your skin underneath looks a little raw. Like – new skin has grown over that area.", Lanie said, as she held the thing in her left hand and made a show of examining it.

"Does that normally happen?", Castle asked as he turned back around, looking more curious than scared. "Oooooh! What _is_ that?"

"Castle, there's nothing normal about this. I don't know what it is. Must be a rare – oh!"

"Oh, what?"

"I – this can't be real. Are you trying to punk me, Richard Castle?", she glared at him.

"Lanie, I really don't know what you're talking about. I woke up and this thing was there, and you're starting to scare me."

"You're serious? He's serious?", she asked Castle and then Alexis, who nodded exaggeratedly. "Castle, there's a – it looks like a microchip."

"A _microchip_?!", he nearly shouted. "Like on the X-files? This is .. this is.. SO COOL!", this time he did shout. Both Lanie and Alexis rolled their eyes. She should have anticipated that's how he'd think.

"Castle, this is _not_ cool. You woke up with a microchip in your neck, and a weird green pus oozing lump, to boot."

"I gotta tell Kate!", he said excitedly, bouncing on his heels, ignoring Lanie.

"NO!", Lanie and Alexis shouted simultaneously, resulting in a suspicious look from him.

"You can't tell Kate, Castle. We don't even know what this is. It could be a tracking device, it could be anything!"

"Isn't that more of a reason to tell her?", he asked with his eyebrow raised.

"And come across as some kind of whack job? You both _just_ got together. Do you really want to chance scaring her off?", Alexis said.

He gave that some thought. It's true that he puts forward theories about alien abductions and CIA conspiracies all the time. But he's always joking about them. Or, well, almost always. Anything is possible. The truth is out there, and all that. She knew he was kidding though. What if she really did think that he was off his rocker? Wouldn't it be a tragedy to have gone through all the things they did, and end up broken because he'd been – actually abducted by aliens? Even in his head it sounded preposterous. In the end, he thought that maybe he should hold off on telling her till they figure out what it is.

"Okay, I guess I shouldn't tell her just yet.", he said as he saw Lanie squeezing out the thick green liquid into one of the vials that she usually used for dead people goop. It made a weird squelching noise that almost made him nauseous, but he was too fascinated to care.

"Yeah, you do that. I'll send this to the lab to a friend of mine and let you know as soon as he gives me something."

"Thanks, Lanie.", he said.

"No problem. We'll figure this out. Alexis, could you give this up to the guys in tech?", she said as she held out the microchip that was now in an evidence bag. In reality she was trying to give the poor girl an excuse to get out of there so she could burst out laughing where her father wouldn't see her. Alexis was positively shaking with silent laughter.

"Sure", she choked out and ran for it.

Castle watched her run and mistook it for anxiety, so he shouted after her, "Don't worry, pumpkin. We'll figure this out."

"It's a good thing you came to me, Castle. Who knows? Maybe they'd have locked you up in a military facility if they found out.", Lanie said coyly.

"Psh. That's if _they_ came to know."

"_They_ have eyes and ears everywhere. But don't worry, I'll be discreet.", Lanie said, fighting off a smirk.

"Thanks again, Lanie.", he said as he paled, seriously thinking about the option of being thrown in a military bunker. Though, he thought he'd totally rock the patient-X look. What if they didn't let him see Kate? Speaking of whom, "I guess I'll go see Kate."

"No! I just saw her a few minutes ago, and she's getting along fine without you. What you need to do is go take a shower. No offense, Castle, but you reek.", she said as she scrunched up her nose.

"I do? Well, okay. I guess I'll head home then. You'll tell me as soon as you find out?"

"Absolutely." _Sucker._ She smirked after she turned around.

xXxXx

_Noon, at the loft._

He'd already told her that he would be in late, so he took his time in the shower and tried again to see the back of his neck. At least it _felt_ normal now. He dressed for the day and just had toast, since he had skipped breakfast earlier. He was starving but didn't want to eat much since he was getting antsy to meet Kate. Maybe they could get lunch together if she hadn't eating yet.

Just as he picked up his keys, Lanie called.

"Hey Lanie", he answered, "Did you find something?"

_"Yeah. Kind of. The green stuff – it's not in any of our data bases. And you know how extensive those are."_

They used those data-bases to identify all kinds of gunk that was found on bodies. You never knew where the evidence might lead you. So yes, he knew how extensive those data-bases were.

"Yeah. And the microchip?"

_"I don't know how they managed it, but they found something on it._", Lanie said.

"What did it say?", he asked.

_"That's just it. They don't know. It's gibberish as far as they're concerned. It's a bunch of symbols that they've never seen, and couldn't match with anything, but they're still running it. Might take a while."_

"Lanie, you know what this sounds like?", he whispered.

_I know exactly what this sounds like."Yeah Castle. I can't believe it myself."_

"This is so cool!", he said again. "Could you imagine the publicity this could garner for my books? I'd be on every news channel across the globe!"

On the other side of the phone, Lanie couldn't believe that it was harder getting Castle to keep quiet than Kate. Then again, this was Castle. How could she have thought that he'd keep quiet? She had some convincing to do. Before she could put a word in, though, he went on blabbering.

"Wow! Abducted by aliens! Hey! Do you think they injected me with stuff? Maybe I have super strength. Oooh ooh ooh! Maybe all my future progeny will be super soldiers. We could start our own precinct! The super NYPD!"

_Oh brother. And he doesn't stop. How does Kate put up with it? The girl really is in love._

"Kate would be the Captain. It'd be great! Looking after our kids _and _working at the same time. And all of you would work there with us, of course."

_"Does Kate know you're thinking about having super children with her?"_, Lanie asked. _This is ridiculous. What am I even saying?_

But Castle seemed to have ignored her. "Hey, maybe I'd finally get an honorary badge. What?", Castle finally asked after he heard Lanie call his name four times.

_"Castle, we don't even know what this is yet. You're just assuming. Don't get ahead of yourself."_

"You're no fun.", he said, pouting.

She rolled her eyes and wondered about how fatigued Kate's eye muscles must be.

_"Castle, remember what I said earlier? If the military gets a whiff of this, they'll send you away."_

"Hah! I'd like to see them try. I'll tell the media. Plus, Kate will save me.", he said, grinning over the phone imagining a movie-style scenario with Kate busting him out of a secret underground military site.

_"Castle, do you want Kate to get dragged into the middle of it if it gets that far?"_

At that, he finally seemed to sober. He thought as much about the rogue military trained assassins who had already tried to kill Kate, as the stories he'd read in so many books and claims. No, he wouldn't want Kate anywhere near that.

"Lanie, what do I do?", Castle asked, seriously.

Finally, she thought she'd convinced him.

_"I told you, we'll figure it out Castle. Just remember what I said earlier. You can't tell anyone. For now, not even Kate, at least till I have something more concrete._

"Yeah. Thanks Lanie.", he said and hung up. He wondered, what more concrete evidence she needed, but soon his thoughts derailed, as they often did, to thoughts about Kate.

For a long time, he just sat thinking about the possible consequences. Would it be so bad to tell her? Maybe Alexis was right. Maybe Kate would think that he's legitimately gone crazy. Maybe they'd all admit him to the psych ward. And he wouldn't want to drag Lanie along, even if she could maybe give some evidence. If it was something unidentifiable though, there was hardly evidence for either side of the argument.

On the other hand, he'd seen what keeping secrets had done to them. And Kate wouldn't just toss him aside. No matter what it was, she would stand by him. They always stood by each other. Why would that stop? Besides, she was a sci-fi fan. Maybe she'd believe it too? He was sure, that even if she didn't believe in his abduction theory, she believed in him. She believed in them. He could see it in her eyes. Over the last couple of months, he thought, it was growing stronger – her faith in them. No, he decided. Keeping this from her was stupid. He had to tell her, even though it worried him slightly.

With that thought in mind, he finally got up and headed to the precinct.

* * *

He'd been to her desk, but she wasn't there. Neither were Esposito and Ryan, so he didn't know where to go next. He knew that she had already been to the morgue, so he thought that she might be out chasing leads. He thought about getting some coffee and giving her a call. Just as he turned around for one last look at the precinct, he saw Kate, Lanie and the guys getting out of the building.

It was like his whole world lit up. His heart picked up its pace, when she noticed him too and smiled at him. She looked as relieved to see him, as he did her.

"Hey!", he greeted all of them, and then turned to Kate. "I've been looking all over the place for you.", he said softly.

"Oh? Lanie had some stuff she needed to show us, so we were at the morgue.", Kate replied.

Lanie wasn't too worried about her scheme falling apart. She thought she'd convinced him over the phone earlier.

He told Kate that he needed to talk to her, but Lanie interrupted and said that he could steal his Kate after lunch. _His Kate._ He liked the sound of that, and worried for a second that Kate would be offended at being seen as a possession. But she surprised him by shrugging and giving him that secret smile that he knew was so much bigger inside. He smiled back at her and took her hand in his. He knew he'd made the right decision. With her by his side, everything felt right.

After lunch, once they got back to the precinct, Kate suddenly dragged him into an empty stairwell. Over lunch he had forgotten about anything and everything but her, but now he remembered. He still wasn't sure how to break it to her. Maybe he would let her think that he didn't believe any of it either. Reverse psychology. Something like that. It seemed to work on her sometimes. He took in a deep breath, and watched her do the same.

They simultaneously blurted out, "I think I'm going crazy."

_Say what now? Was she abducted too? Maybe that's why Lanie was so adamant about not telling her. Kate was freaking out too. She must've made Lanie promise not to tell him. Maybe they could share a bunker._

* * *

**A/N:** See? Far less elaborate than Kate's thing. I'm glad to get these two together again. Phewpf. Personally I love that Lanie's plan backfired because she misjudged their need for each other. I also loved getting Castle to drive Lanie nuts. Heh. It's fun to irritate them.


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: **Not mine. Tra la la.

**A/N: **Finally, the last chapter has arrived, since it felt like a natural place to conclude this. Again I want to thank all of you who gave this story a chance. It started out as a one shot and grew into this monstrous thing.

Thank you all who have reviewed. It meant a lot to me to hear that it has made you laugh.

To guest reviewers, I couldn't personally message you, but I read each guest comment and wished I could thank you too. : ) ..

Thanks especially to some of my twit/fellow author friends who've also been reading this (you know who you are) for all the encouragement.

* * *

Chapter 11

"Wait. What?", Castle asked.

"You first.", Kate said.

As Castle explained his story, Kate looked all kinds of perplexed but she didn't look like he had gone crazy. _Thank you, God._ After he finished, she finally asked, "Why'd you go to Lanie?"

"Because she's a doctor?", Castle said uncertainly.

"You know other doctors.", she said, crossing her arms.

"Well yeah. Alexis suggested it 'cause she was headed there anyway."

"Ah! You said you woke up with the lump?"

"Yeah…", he said, unsure of where this was going.

"You know, you're a heavy sleeper, Castle. It's ridiculous, how much I have to do to wake you up."

"Oh, I know, but it's so worth waking up to – ", he trailed off. "Oh my God! Alexis?", he said, catching on, looking at her incredulously.

"There's only one way to find out."

He dialed her number and waited for her to pick up.

"_Hi Dad! Did you find anything new?", _Alexis asked him

"Oh, I found something out alright.", he said, keeping his voice stern.

"_Erm.. What did you find out?"_, she asked tentatively.

"My own daughter!", he said, as if he'd been betrayed. Kate rolled her eyes. "How could you? Did you know I thought that the military would take me away from you and leave you, my only daughter, to fend for yourself in this big, bad world? All the while I was thinking about how you'd cope and all the ways I'd let you down in life."

Guilting his daughter to confess?_ Priceless._

"_Dad! I'm so sorry! You've never let me down. Please don't think that. You're the best. It was only meant to be a prank. Lanie and the guys were trying to get back at you about something that happened at the precinct and I thought -. I didn't think. I just wanted to get you back for the April Fool's day thing. I'm sorry dad!", _she said in such a rush that Castle was squinting his eyes, though how that might help him concentrate on a phone call, he didn't know.

He decided not to prolong her misery. "Busted!", he said in a sing-song voice.

"_I – what?"_, Alexis asked, sounding confused. Then, _"You mean you guessed it?"_

"Made a deduction with some help from NYPD's finest.", Castle replied while smiling at Kate.

After that they spoke for a little while longer. Alexis explained how she had used some of that thick zombie make up that was left over, to make a small little lump that she filled with a water-paste concoction that she had dyed green. He thought it was rather ingenious and well done. She said that it had been easy enough to apply the final product to his neck while he was asleep, and the rest of it was a piece of cake except for the part where she had to control her laughter. The microchip, it seemed, had been cupped in Lanie's palm while she peeled off the makeup.

* * *

"Well, at least one of us is definitely not crazy.", she told Castle.

"Wait, what exactly happened to you?", Castle asked her.

As she told her story, she saw that Castle was valiantly trying not to laugh. His twitching lips gave him away though. But she still appreciated the effort.

"Well, now that we know what we know, I'm guessing this is some evil genius ploy by Lanie and the guys too. You thought that being with me drove you crazy? Like, literally crazy?", he asked with a smirk. "I'm not sure whether to be offended or proud."

"It's not funny, Castle.", she said with a slight frown. "It didn't make sense, but it did. I've never felt this way before. Yes, you drive me nuts sometimes – most of the times – and still, I want you around. I need you around. I didn't think that being with you drove me crazy. I thought being _in love with you_ drove me crazy.", she finished, and waited for him to laugh. Only, the laughter never came.

He brought his palm up to her cheek and caressed it gently, lovingly with his fingers. "And even so, you're here with me. I don't think it's funny – well, that's not true. It's hilarious. But more than that, I think it's endearing that you would dismiss hallucinations of rabbits, heart balloons, time travelling, and doves as part of an overly realistic seeming imagination, just because you're in love.", he said, as he brought his fingers to her lips. "Just to clarify though, I'm completely, utterly, outright, irrevocably – "

"Castle –", she interrupted.

"- in love with you. But I do not have hallucinations. Dreams, sure. I have plenty of those. Some of them are really sexy."

She gave him a look. "Faahyne. Most of them are really sexy."

She smirked. "Only most?"

"Well, yeah. There are sweet ones too, where you're cooking for me, or I'm cooking for you, or we're just lounging on the couch all cuddled up while watching a movie, or – _probably not a good idea to tell her about the little Ricks and Kates running around in superhero capes, or with cardboard swords while fighting off imaginary dinosaurs _– or other stuff like that.", he finished.

She blushed. "Hmm." He should really control his features while zoning out.

"Wait. Why didn't _you_ call me?", Castle asked.

"You were writing. I didn't want to distract you.", she said.

"You're not a distraction, Kate Beckett. Nikki Heat wouldn't even exist without you. You're my inspiration. Always have been.", he said seriously. She gave him a quick kiss. He added, "Kate, I'd have put everything aside. You come first. You always come first."

She smiled at first then bit her lip and her smile turned into that smirk that he loved, oh so much. "Not always. There are times when you come first."

"My, my Beckett. Now you _are_ distracting me.", he said.

She could see as much with the darkening of his eyes. She shook her head.

They were still at the precinct, in a stairwell. Actually, why were they still here? _It's been ages._

"We can't let them get away with this!", Castle declared with his fist flailing in the air.

"What? No, no, no. No more of this, Castle. I think we've all had enough."

He pouted. "Can't we at least make them squirm a bit?"

She laughed. "Yeah, I guess we can do that. You want to go get a confession from the perps, partner?"

"It's what we do best!", he said with a huge grin. He cleared his throat. "Ahem. Sorry, second best."

* * *

They managed to convince Lanie and the guys to come to the Old Haunt that night. Castle even called Alexis to tell her not to spill. She complied, saying that she was better off not being in the middle of this craziness and that she had better things to do with her time anyway.

Kate and Rick took them down to his office once they arrived, saying that they needed some privacy. They looked so somber, that Lanie, Esposito and Ryan all looked a little worried. _So far, so good._

Once they were all seated with beers in their hands, Kate and Rick shared a look and a nod, making sure that the others noticed it. "We have some news.", Kate said.

"What's going on, guys?", Ryan asked.

"You guys don't need to worry about Gates finding out anymore."

They didn't ask what she meant. They knew it was about their relation.

"You guys are coming out in the open?", Lanie said and almost squealed till she caught their expressions. "What?"

"It isn't working out any more.", Castle said.

"What?", they all chorused, wearing matching expressions of shock. They looked at each other.

Lanie wondered if they'd gone too far.

"There are some things that have happened recently, that put things in perspective.", Kate said. It was getting harder to maintain a straight face. "It's starting to interfere with our work."

"You've been working fine together till today.", Lanie said flatly, apparently angry.

"I guess we just realized it today.", Castle said.

Kate added. "Look, we – ", she looked at Castle, "- we thought it was going well too, until today. We realized that we're still not opening up to each other as much as we should. It shouldn't be that way in a relationship. But we're both obviously keeping secrets from each other. It almost destroyed us once already, we're not ready for it to happen again. If we can salvage our friendship, it'll be worth it."

"It'll be _worth it?_", Lanie nearly screamed and stood up. She was fuming. "It'll be worth breaking up over this? I can't believe you guys. Maybe you shouldn't be together after all. Ya'll need to get your heads out of your asses. YOU – ", she pointed at Kate and said, "you think just cause you're having a hard day and seeing things that you were afraid to tell Castle about, that that's it? You should give up? Girl, I thought you were smarter than that. I knew I should've smacked some sense into you when I had the chance. I thought you'd finally gained perspective. And you! –", she said turning to Castle. "You idiot! Did I not warn you about breaking my girl's heart? You've loved her for forever. You waited for her for forever. How can you just quit like that? Man up and convince her that you're worth it or I'm going to kick that gorgeous writer butt!" At the end of it she was breathing hard and looked like she might in fact, kick some gorgeous writer butt.

Esposito and Ryan were stunned speechless – whether by Kate and Castle's declaration or by Lanie's passionate outburst, no one could be sure.

Rick shifted back to recline on his chair and Kate smiled.

"WHAT?", Lanie asked, still looking completely irate.

Rick slung his hand over Kate's shoulder and she turned to give him a heated kiss to clear any doubts which resulted in twin 'ews' from Ryan and Esposito. Kate asked, "And how would you know that I'm seeing things, Lanie?"

"Oh my GOD!", she said, partly shocked, partly happy, partly angry. Even she wasn't sure.

"Oh, they totally had you!", Esposito said, laughing a little till he caught her eyes, at which point he abruptly turned it into a cough. "Us. They totally had us.", he backpedaled. "They fooled me too.", he said and turned to the couple, seemingly suddenly angry too. "How could you?", he yelled and brought his hand to his chest in an act of indignation.

This time Ryan rolled his eyes.

"You two nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Okay. One, you are way too invested in our relationship. It's a little spooky.", Castle said with a grin. "And two, I can't believe you turned used my daughter against me. So very diabolical of you Dr. Parish."

"Little Castle gave me up?", Lanie asked, surprised.

"Not intentionally. I tricked her.", Castle answered.

"How did you guys figure it out?", Ryan asked as Lanie sat back down, looking a little calmer than before.

"You told Castle not to tell me, Lanie?", Kate countered. "Did you really think he'd hold his tongue?"

"Not when it comes to you, I won't.", Castle said. "I happen to know for a fact that you enjoy my tongue very much."

Kate blushed.

"Bro! TMI!", Esposito said with a disgusted face.

"What? It's true.", he said with a smirk and a shrug.

"I guess I underestimated you, Castle.", Lanie said with narrowed eyes. "It won't happen again."

"No, it won't.", Kate cut in. "We're calling a truce."

"Truce?"

"Yeah. This whole thing started from Castle's need to get back at you…"

"Hey, you were in it too for all the years of cockblocking by these two.", Castle said while pointing at Espo and Ryan.

"What?", Ryan asked.

"I'll explain later", Kate said with a slight blush. "And yeah, fine. Whatever. We wanted to get back at you for that and for the whole thing with Gates about Castle crying. It wounded his pride."

"And yours by association!", Castle put in.

"Sure, Castle.", she said and patted his head, drawing a snicker from Lanie. Castle looked affronted.

"I'm guessing that you guys got back at us for the revenge cockblocking?", Kate surmised.

"Yes. You have no idea how hard it was for me to get through the week with Jenny thinking that article was true.", Ryan whined.

"One week? Bro! I thought I had Seanorrhoea for a week and a half. Do you know how worried I was?", he said, looking first at Ryan and then at Castle.

"Heh. I can't believe you fell for that.", Castle said.

"Me neither.", Lanie said, "All the same, he did. And I had to suffer for it too."

"Sorry about that, Lanie.", Kate said sincerely. "But that's why we want a truce."

"Fine. Truce.", Lanie said and they all agreed.

"How'd you pull off the rabbit and doves?", she asked them all, still curious about it.

Ryan answered, "You remember Jenny's cousin, Brian?"

"The magician? Oh -!", Kate said.

"Yep. He was lurking around when Espo got off the elevator. The dove flew right to him."

"Oh. Yeah, I didn't even notice. I guess I was too preoccupied."

Espo started laughing. "Man, you should've seen your expression, Beckett. I think we should label it the best 'What the frap?' expression ever! Get it? Cause you love coffee…?"

"Ha-ha, you're a real comedian.", Kate said flatly, while the others laughed. "And the balloons? You took a picture right in front of me."

Again Ryan replied, "Ah! I did. And I deleted it as soon as I took it. I showed you a picture I'd taken before we put those up there."

"That was smart thinking, bro!", Javi said, slapping him on the back.

"Thanks.", he replied.

"I have to say, between you guys running around so much, for you to still have gotten far with the case is admirable.", Castle said. They had closed the case earlier. Between the evidence from tech, his alibi falling apart, and Kate's expertise at drawing confessions; they'd built a solid case against Robert Long.

"Uh. Actually, we dumped our paperwork on a guy who owed us multiple favors. He ran financials too. I trust him though, so I knew we could depend on him.", Espo said.

"And Beckett's the one who saw the social networking connection.", Ryan said.

"I guess you're not a distraction after all, Castle.", Lanie said with a smile.

"No, we do our jobs just fine with each other around. In fact, better then.", Castle said with a smile, remembering their conversation from earlier.

"So, is Alexis in trouble?", Lanie asked tentatively.

"Trouble? I'm going to buy her ice cream! She was brilliant. I'm so proud.", Castle said, wiping an imaginary tear from his face.

"How she's turned out the way she did is beyond me.", Kate said fondly.

"Yeah, between Martha and you. No offense."

"None taken. What can I say? She's always been a rebel."

They all smiled.

"At least now I have hopes.", he added.

"You're crazy!", Lanie said.

He nodded fervently. "Crazy in lurve.", he said with a smug grin, earning him a small slap to the back of his head from Kate, causing all of them to laugh.

As they laughed, late into the night, celebrating their truce, celebrating the closing of yet another case, they all knew that in reality, they were celebrating their little family.

* * *

**A/N: **Final Thoughts?


End file.
